Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) in reintroducing the Repeal Insurance Plans of the Multi-State Program (RIP MSP), Act, a bill to terminate an Affordable Care Act program known as the Multi-State Plan program. They are joined on the bill by Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Mike Lee (R-UT), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Braun (R-IN), James Lankford (R-OK), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Raul Paul (R-KY).
“This program is the definition of government waste. The failed Obamacare program required every state to participate, yet the ‘multi-state’ program is not offered in a single state,” said the senators in a joint statement. “This plan has cost the federal government tens of millions since its nationwide implementation in 2014, has failed to meet statutory requirements, and is diverting necessary resources from what should be the Office of Personnel Management’s core mission-critical programs. Congress needs to let the OPM focus on its job, eliminate this failed program, and work to ensure health care is more affordable for all Americans.”
Section 1334 of the Affordable Care Act requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to contract with at least two national health plans, one of which must be a non-profit plan, to compete directly with private plans in every state. These plans are called Multi-State Plans, or MSPs — and under current law, they are required to be available in all 50 states. However, no states participate in the program, which has caused the federal government to waste $10 million per year.
“Obamacare is a story of failed government programs, with the Multi-State Plan Program chief among them,” Senator Cramer said at the time. “After being inserted into the Affordable Care Act without hearings or input, the federal government has spent $54 million trying to implement this plan nationwide, but only one state has participated. Rather than expanding it into a public option, similar to Democrats’ Medicare for All proposal, we should end this waste of taxpayer funds.”