Healthcare

Floor Speech

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Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, folks in this Chamber may know this, but the fight for affordable healthcare is deeply personal to me.

When I was just 9 years old, I had a very serious childhood illness. It was a diagnosis similar to spinal meningitis--that wasn't the exact diagnosis--but I was actually in the hospital for 3 months. And even though I made a full recovery, my family was not able to find health insurance for me at any price, and that is because I had been labeled as a child with a preexisting health condition.

At that time, insurance companies were allowed to refuse coverage for people because they had preexisting health conditions, but because of the Affordable Care Act, we changed that and gave Americans with preexisting conditions some serious protections.

We gave families like mine hope. We gave young people hope allowing them to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26--a provision I crafted in the House of Representatives. And we gave small business owners hope, ensuring that their employees could get affordable care.

And since then, I am proud to say that we have actually built on the success of the Affordable Care Act. One of those wins has been giving families a tax break when they buy their insurance through the marketplace to help make their healthcare more affordable.

For small businesses, like our restaurants, manufacturers, and childcare providers, the small group health insurance market isn't just a huge administrative burden, it is also expensive. The open marketplace is the difference between being able to hire and retain and keep doors open and losing staff to jobs at companies that have the wherewithal to provide health insurance.

But this tax break is all on the line right now. If Republicans don't act with us, this tax break will end at the end of this year, jacking up premium costs for 24 million people in America, including pricing about 4 million Americans out of the market altogether.

Yes, you heard me right, 4 or more million people will see their healthcare terminated. These numbers have very real people behind each of them, with very real stories.

Take Amanda. Amanda is a broker's assistant in a real estate office in Wisconsin who relies on the enhanced premium tax credits on the Affordable Care Act. Amanda, who has lupus, needs weekly shots to manage the autoimmune disease.

Or take Madison chef and restaurant owner Evan Dannells who has about a dozen employees who all get their care from the Affordable Care Act.

He said that if that weren't an affordable option, his employees would be looking at corporate employers that can afford big insurance packages.

The stories go on and on of Wisconsinites who rely on the Affordable Care Act to get just that: affordable healthcare.

But these are the people who will have their premiums skyrocketing, forcing some like Amanda to lose care altogether and forcing others like Evan to lose employees.

The upside is that there is a very simple way to fix this, and it is right in front of us: pass the bill that Senator Shaheen and I lead to make these tax breaks permanent.

Time is of the essence. Families and businesses are going to get those dreaded letters in the mail any day now saying their premiums are going up 75 percent. Families will have to make really tough choices. Small businesses will be left holding the bag as employees leave for corporations that are able to afford insurance plans.

So we are left with one question: Will Republicans refuse to act and increase healthcare costs for tens of millions of Americans? So far, their answer has been yes. They have had opportunity after opportunity--in fact, three different times on the Senate floor this year--but again they chose not to do anything.

When Republicans were putting together their huge sweeping tax bill, you would think that including tax breaks for tens of millions of families to afford healthcare would be their centerpiece, right? Wrong.

As families are slated to get notices of how much their premiums are going to go up any day now, Republicans had yet another chance this week to help address this pressing issue. House Republicans unveiled a bill just yesterday to fund the government, but it does absolutely nothing to lower healthcare costs or prevent millions from being kicked off of their insurance.

This agenda to strip healthcare for millions and raise healthcare costs for tens of millions is not what the American people are clamoring for, I can assure you.

Wisconsinites have been crystal clear that they need lower costs. The last thing they need is their healthcare premiums to be jacked up or, worse, not even being able to afford them. If Republicans fail to act, Wisconsinites know who to thank when their premiums go up next year and millions are priced out of healthcare.

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