CHOICES?

Chaffetz: Maybe Make Health Care a Priority Over New Phone

Says giving low-income people more access to more choices will drive down costs.

Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz suggested Tuesday that low-income Americans might have to choose between health-care coverage over an iPhone as a cost-cutting measure. “Americans have choices, and they’ve got to make a choice. So maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care. They’ve got to make those decisions themselves.” Chaffetz’s remarks come a day after the House Republicans unveiled their Affordable Care Act replacement bill. He added that giving people more access to more health-care choices will lower costs across the board. Among other things, the repeal legislation would get rid of Obama’s individual mandate to purchase insurance or pay a tax penalty. Appearing on Fox News later Tuesday morning, Chaffetz said “maybe I didn’t say it as smoothly as I possibly could, but people need to make a conscious choice and I believe in self-reliance.”