WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Jen Kiggans (VA-02) released the following statement in response to the President’s visit to Virginia Beach:
“Today the President came to Virginia’s Second Congressional District – my district – and attempted to mislead my constituents about benefit cuts I actively oppose.
“Instead of joining me and my Republican colleagues in a commonsense conversation about how to strengthen Medicare and lower healthcare costs, he painted this red versus blue picture to scare seniors and others who rely on these critical programs. Like so many across the country, they are fearful about how to pay for their healthcare costs as inflation under this Administration continues to chip away at family budgets.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my first two months in Washington, it’s that actions speak louder than words. As the only geriatric nurse practitioner in Congress, I’ve had the privilege of caring for our Greatest Generation for many years, proudly providing them the quality healthcare they deserve as they age.
“This issue should never be used as a partisan publicity stunt. Improving Medicare to ensure it can continue to provide America’s seniors with the services they rely on will require bipartisanship; it will not be accomplished by endless fearmongering, finger pointing, or falsehoods.
“I am laser focused on my work in Congress to provide affordable and accessible care for Virginians and all Americans. I encourage the President, and my Democrat colleagues, to stop playing politics and work with me and the new House majority to deliver real, permanent relief to rising healthcare costs that Americans deserve.”
BACKGROUND
After serving in the U.S. Navy, Congresswoman Kiggans used her GI Bill benefits to go back to school and become a board-certified Adult-Geriatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner. A graduate of Old Dominion University’s Nursing School and Vanderbilt University’s Nurse Practitioner program, she has worked in several long-term care and nursing facilities in Virginia Beach and Norfolk in addition to serving as a primary care provider for a small private practice in Virginia Beach.
In the Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2024, the annual Obamacare rule, the Biden Administration proposed limiting the number of plan offerings, which will result in 2.7 million Americans – more than one in four who are enrolled through the federal platform – to be kicked off their Obamacare plans.
The Congresswoman is a cosponsor of H.Res.118, which reaffirms the House’s commitment to save and strengthen Medicare as a vital program for senior healthcare, and H.Res.117, which recognizes Social Security as a key pillar of retirement security for tens of millions of Americans and reaffirms the U.S. House of Representatives’ commitment to not cut Social Security.
After the State of the Union, Congresswoman Kiggans was interviewed by CSPAN, during which she reiterated her commitment to supporting Medicare in addition to addressing general, much-needed healthcare improvements. You can watch that interview here.
A study conducted by VitalTransformation found that if the drug price controls in the Inflation Reduction Act had been enacted during the last decade, only six of the 110 currently approved therapies would have made it to patients. In oncology alone, the University of Chicago found that price controls in the bill will reduce overall annual cancer R&D spending by about $18.1 billion.
Last Congress, Democrats passed H.R. 6833, which caps monthly out-of-pocket costs on insulin for individuals on private health insurance plans for insulin products at $35 or 25% of a plan’s negotiated price (after any price concessions), whichever is less, beginning in 2023.
- However, this legislation enforces a cap on copays, not on the price of insulin itself. While the bill would cap a patient’s copay at $35, it does nothing to address the underlying cost of insulin nor does it prevent pharmaceutical companies from increasing the price at which they sell their drug to insurance providers. This means that private health insurance companies and Medicare are left picking up the remaining cost, a cost that would likely be inevitably past off to Virginians in the form of higher premiums. In addition to that concern, uninsured patients would be left without any assistance, and would still be required to pay the full list price under this proposal.
Joe Biden is a DIVIDER, not a UNITER!
He’s also not very intelligent.
Congresswoman Kiggins would be doing this nation a great favor and she would be a national heroine if she became laser-focused on getting Karmela Harris impeached for being too stupid to hold high-elected office in the LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE, followed by a 25th Amendment petition to get Joe Biden out of office on mental deficiency grounds.
And I am pleased to see Congresswoman Kiggins becoming laser-focused on who the real existential threat to our future and national security really is, and it is not China, it is Joe Biden.
As to China, according to the Reuters article “China leads US in global competition for key emerging technology, study says” on March 2, 2023, we are a second-rate nation compared to them, and seriously, WHO CAN BE SURPRISED, when the focus of the Democrats is protecting the rights of criminals, and illegal immigrants, which in turn makes us into a second-rate nation, to wit:
SYDNEY, March 2 (Reuters) – China has a “stunning lead” in 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies as Western democracies lose a global competition for research output, a security think tank said on Thursday after tracking defence, space, energy and biotechnology.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said its study showed that, in some fields, all of the world’s top 10 research institutions are based in China.
The study, funded by the United States State Department, found the United States was often second-ranked, although it led global research in high-performance computing, quantum computing, small satellites and vaccines.
“Western democracies are losing the global technological competition, including the race for scientific and research breakthroughs,” the report said, urging greater research investment by governments.
China had established a “stunning lead in high-impact research” under government programs.
ASPI tracked the most-cited scientific papers, which it said are the most likely to result in patents.
China’s surprise breakthrough in hypersonic missiles in 2021 would have been identified earlier if China’s strong research had been detected, it said.
“Over the past five years, China generated 48.49% of the world’s high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines, including hypersonics, and it hosts seven of the world’s top 10 research institutions,” it said.
In the fields of photonic sensors and quantum communication, China’s research strength could result in it “going dark” to the surveillance of western intelligence, including the “Five Eyes” of Britain, United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, it said.
National talent flows of researchers were also tracked and monopoly risks were identified.
China was likely to emerge with a monopoly in 10 fields including synthetic biology, where it produces one-third of all research, as well as electric batteries, 5G, and nano manufacturing.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences, a government research body, ranked first or second in most of the 44 technologies tracked, which spanned defence, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials and quantum technology.
China was bolstering its research with knowledge gained overseas, and the data showed one-fifth of the top Chinese researchers were trained in a Five Eyes country, it said.