Coronavirus

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleagues on the floor in support of legislation that would address what is happening in our long-term care facilities across this country as a result of the coronavirus.

I applaud Senator Casey for his leadership on this legislation and am pleased to be able to join in cosponsoring the bill, along with my colleague from New Hampshire, Senator Hassan; Senator Whitehouse, who was here; and Senator Blumenthal. We are all here because this country is not doing enough to support long-term care facilities and nursing homes in America.

Before I talk more about the legislation, I begin by expressing my outrage at the fact that this administration has directed the Department of Justice to weigh in to try and overturn the Affordable Care Act at a time when we have millions of Americans who are vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic. As of today, 2.5 million Americans--nearly 6,000 patients in New Hampshire--have been infected with the coronavirus.

Nationally, more than 125,000 Americans have died. In New Hampshire, nearly 400 Granite Staters have died from complications from the virus. Yet what this administration is doing is trying to strike down the Affordable Care Act and take away healthcare coverage from 23 million Americans, including over 90,000 residents of New Hampshire.

That means, if they are successful, that we will have millions of Americans with preexisting conditions who will lose protections that they rely on. We will return to the days when insurers can deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions or charge them higher premiums based on their health status. Insurers will, once again, be able to put caps on the dollar value of health services that can be covered in a year or a lifetime.

At a time when unemployment has risen to levels that we have not seen since the Great Depression, this administration is asking the Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion provisions which, in New Hampshire, has been the most significant factor in ensuring that people who are struggling with substance use disorders are able to get treatment.

This Senate should not stand silently by while the administration tries to tear down the Affordable Care Act at a time when people are most in need of assurances that they can get healthcare coverage.

We need to come together to address what needs to change about the Affordable Care Act to make it better, but we need to do that together because if this administration is successful in striking down the Affordable Care Act, they don't have a plan of what is going to replace it.

During this global pandemic, it is not enough just to protect the Affordable Care Act from ongoing sabotage. We have also got to do more to support frontline healthcare providers, especially in nursing homes and long-term care facilities that are caring for vulnerable seniors, and that is what this legislation that we are speaking to is all about.

In the Granite State, we know just how dire the needs of nursing facilities have become, as nursing home residents account for approximately 80 percent of the coronavirus deaths in New Hampshire.

I want to just reemphasize what Senator Hassan said. Eighty percent of the coronavirus deaths in New Hampshire--we have the highest rate in the Nation of deaths in long-term care facilities, and yet we have nursing facility staff in the State who tell me they are stretched thin due to increased costs from the coronavirus response. They have reduced revenue because they have had to postpone stays in long-term care facilities for patients who need physical rehabilitation.

It is critical that the Senate take action to provide more support to these facilities so they can afford the additional staffing, the testing supplies, the personal protective equipment that will be needed to keep our seniors safe.

That is why I strongly support Senator Casey's bill that will provide $20 million in new aid to nursing facilities to help them confront this pandemic head-on.

This bill needs to be a central component of any future round of coronavirus response legislation here in the Senate. Our communities are demanding action to respond to the ongoing impact that the virus is having on the public health and on our economy.

As I said last week on the Senate floor, it is long past time for this body to join together and get serious about another coronavirus response bill.

The really impressive thing about what we have done to date in response to this pandemic is the fact that we have worked together to get four really significant packages of legislation done. Yet now it has been 6 weeks since the House passed its coronavirus response package, known as the Heroes Act. During that time, there has been no action here in the Senate to take up the Senate response to the coronavirus. That needs to end.

I mean, even today we heard the Governor of New Hampshire--the Republican Governor, Chris Sununu--announce that in New Hampshire our State expects to experience a budget shortfall of nearly $540 million. That is about a 20-percent drop in State revenues. That is going to have a huge impact in New Hampshire, not just on healthcare but on so many investments that the State needs to make in our schools, in responses for first responders, in roads and water systems and critical infrastructure. Everyone in the State, from town administrators to the Republican Governor, all are describing the tough choices that they are going to have to make if Federal assistance doesn't arrive soon.

Of course, that extends to our nursing home facilities--to the many businesses and organizations in New Hampshire and across this country that need more help.

So I urge our colleagues to support Senator Casey's legislation. Let's get assistance to those facilities that are so much in need and come together and demand that we get another coronavirus response package of legislation so that people know help is, once again, on the way.

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