Republican National Committee senior adviser Danielle Alvarez on Friday accused Democrats of driving up healthcare costs and refusing to negotiate as a key set of subsidies approaches a deadline in Congress.
In an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Alvarez said Democrat policies have failed to control prices and left families struggling to pay for coverage.
"Well, we know that Democrats have been failing in our healthcare system. They have been failing on prices," she said.
"The reason that we are in the hole that we are in is because of the four previous years of [former President] Joe Biden," Alvarez added.
"President [Donald] Trump and Republicans are working to make our nation more affordable, make it better, make healthcare costs more transparent through policies like, again, transparency on insurance costs, transparency on hospital pricing, bringing down favored nation drug pricing," she said.
Alvarez framed the current Capitol Hill fight over expiring subsidies as the direct result of Democrat decisions, echoing criticism from Republicans who say the Affordable Care Act and later legislation locked in higher premiums and deductibles.
"Democrats just want to play the blame game. They do not want to come to the table and negotiate," she said.
Her comments came after a pair of rival health care bills failed to advance in the Senate, leaving both parties accusing the other of risking sticker shock for consumers if temporary subsidies lapse.
Earlier in the segment, former White House aide Hogan Gidley argued that problems with coverage were rooted entirely in Democrat lawmaking and that Republicans had tried to include cost sharing measures that he said would have cut costs by 12% to 15%.
Alvarez picked up that theme and sought to broaden it, tying high prices across the system to Biden and congressional Democrats as Republicans push new proposals they say would lower costs and increase choice.
"The reason that we are in the hole that we are in is because of the four previous years of Joe Biden," Alvarez said, adding that Republicans are "working to make our nation more affordable" while Democrats focus on political attacks.
Democrats have argued that allowing subsidies to expire would drive premiums sharply higher for millions of people and have blamed Republicans and Trump for refusing to guarantee continued support.
Alvarez rejected that, insisting that Democrat votes for past legislation are the real source of today's higher prices.
Republicans, she said, want to "make healthcare costs more transparent" and give consumers more control over "your own money and your own choices," while Democrats "do not want to come to the table and negotiate."
The clash over who is responsible for rising healthcare costs is expected to intensify as Congress nears the deadline, with both parties wary of being blamed if premiums or out-of-pocket expenses spike for voters heading into the next election.
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