A Georgia lawmaker had some strong words to say about how insurance companies are affecting the U.S., however, this was all caught on a hot mic during a live streamed meeting.
During an appropriations joint hearing Wednesday, Appropriations Chair Mark Hatchett, a Republican, said that insurance companies are “ruthless” and “greedy.”
The remarks, not intended to be heard by listeners, came after a presentation by Georgia’s Insurance Commissioner John F. King.
Rep. Lisa Campbell, a Democrat, said she had heard from constituents about “skyrocketing premiums.”
“We’re getting these 20, 30, 40 percent rate increases year after year,” she said.
King said he had no authority over rates. “My job is to be the blame catcher for insurance rates,” King said.
“Destroying our country, in a disguise that they’re helping,” Hatchett said about insurance companies after King spoke.
Hatchett appears to be talking to fellow Republican Vice Chairman Kasey Carpenter, who affirms this sentiment by saying “you’re absolutely right.”
Carpenter also took issue with King saying insurance rates had fallen during his presentation.
“Like hell they have,” Carpenter said on the hot mic. “Everybody in America is getting a 25 percent increase even private insurers.”
Many Americans have seen their insurance premiums increase drastically this month after the U.S. Senate, controlled by conservatives, rejected a plan to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Those subsidies helped lower the cost of insurance found on the ACA’s marketplace.
According to KFF, a health policy non-profit, insurers were already expected to charge 26 percent more beginning in 2026.
But many ACA enrollees may have actually begun to see a 114 percent increase in their insurance premiums.
AJC.com’s Greg Bluestein tweeted that a lawmaker joked to him that Hatchett will “never lose another election” after making the remark.
‘Ruthless’ insurance companies are ‘destroying our country,’ Georgia Republicans say on hot mic
