Healthcare

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I join my colleague from Michigan as well as Senators Welch and Shaheen and the others that come before this body today to talk about what is really happening out there.

Well, what is really happening out there is that we are in a healthcare crisis, and that is because the big beautiful betrayal of a bill will kick 15 million Americans off their healthcare, force hospitals, health clinics, and nursing homes to close. This is already happening with the premium notices, with what they are already seeing. It is raising costs for everyday Americans.

And now, if Congress doesn't act to extend the Affordable Care Act's health tax credits before they expire, more than 20 million Americans will see their premiums soar, putting their coverage at risk.

I go to all 87 counties in my State every single year, and I visit rural hospitals. I know what is happening out there. I know what is happening to people who are in small businesses, who rely on the Affordable Care Act, who are already seeing increased grocery costs, already seeing increased electricity costs, and are already seeing dried-up markets because of these tariffs. This is all hitting them at once.

At the end of the day, everything from regular checkups and lifesaving prescriptions to hospital visits and long-term care is under threat--not for the wealthiest. They are going to be able to handle it. Maybe not even for people in some of the big cities, but for people out there in rural right now, they are barely holding on as it is.

And this is on top of the funding cuts to public health and medical research that extinguish hope for lifesaving cures and jeopardize America's global leadership and medical innovation. Those people are holding on too.

Just last weekend, I went with the Parkinson's Association on their charity walk. Those people are holding on for hope in their wheelchairs. They are holding on for hope. They are daughters and sons; they are brothers and sisters. We are so close in so many areas because of the mapping of the human genome, because of AI--as this is coming from the home of the Mayo Clinic, MN--that we do not want to go backward when it comes to investment in research.

That is why my Democratic colleagues and I are fighting to restore healthcare in this upcoming budget bill. Right now, healthcare access for more than 20 million Americans who benefited from healthcare tax credits are at risk, as I just noted. As a result, a record number of Americans, 24 million people, have been enrolled in this Affordable Care Act, but all of them are going to see this increase if something isn't done.

This will be a massive hit to working families. It will be especially harmful to middle-class families, small business owners, and entrepreneurs, seniors, and people living in rural communities. It will force States to reduce coverage and shift resources away from other priorities like education and public safety. In Minnesota, at least nine rural hospitals are at immediate risk of having to shut their doors and stop providing care.

Medicare, Medicaid, and enhanced healthcare tax credits are overwhelmingly supported by Americans. Why? Because this is about their families. This is about the fact that they know that healthcare--over the years, they have seen the prices and what has happened with pharmaceuticals, and they expect us to do better than what is happening now. They expect us to do better than putting forward what is in this bill that just happened that hurts their rural hospitals or throws people off of their coverage or stops lifesaving research on these cures that has always been so bipartisan or the rhetoric around vaccines, which so many of them know their kids need. I just found out this year I had no immunity to measles. I got the shot, but it was at the wrong time. So I got that vaccine. Right now, so many people don't even know. They turn on the TV, and they hear the HHS Secretary question these vaccines against the belief of a number of people on the other side of the aisle, the Senators, Republican Senators, including those who are doctors. This is just creating massive chaos.

Costs are up. Chaos is up. Confusion is up. We must do better. More insured Americans is good for patients, good for families, and good for our country. More research paves the way for cutting-edge treatment and the cures of tomorrow.

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