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Arizona congressman suggests changes to health care proposal

Posted at 6:26 PM, Apr 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-19 23:07:47-04

An Arizona congressman is hoping his idea can resurrect the Republican health care plan.

Rep. David Schweikert sat down with ABC15's Melissa Blasius today to explain his "invisible risk sharing" plan. The federal government would be the invisible partner, kicking in money to share pay for medical care expenses for people with chronic conditions.

Explaining how it works, Schweikert said, "You just sort of broke this cost threshold - for the next $10,000 we're going to kick in 10 cents, insurance will kick in 90 cents, and then you start to graduate that up"

Schweikert said cost sharing should bring premium prices down for the rest of the people by up to 30 percent.  He believes healthy, young people would then opt-in to the system.

"What that does is it bends the top of the cost curve," Schweikert said. 

See our extended interview with Schweikert in the player below.