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Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today as millions of Americans stand on the edge of a healthcare cliff. I join my Democratic colleagues in continuing to fight to reopen the government and to prevent Americans' healthcare costs from skyrocketing.

A critical part of governing is finding common ground. You don't always pick your neighbors, as the Presiding Officer knows--we have worked together for many, many years--but you find a way to live next to your neighbors, as we do, and to work with them.

Making healthcare more affordable should be a bipartisan issue. And some of my Republican colleagues know we need to act and we need to get something done and the overwhelming majority of Americans agree. I worked that way in the Senate. For a number of years, I was ranked No. 1 for bipartisan bills and No. 3 for passing bills into law because when we sit down together to work things out, we can get things done.

Courage is about willing to stand next to someone you don't always agree with for the betterment of this country. That means finding some common ground. It doesn't mean saying: My way or the highway. It doesn't mean, when you are the President of the United States, canceling meetings, doing one at the last minute, and then, with the Democratic leaders of our country, putting up a deepfake video that was incredibly offensive, poking at them instead of taking this issue seriously. They came to him in good faith and still do.

Unfortunately, right now, our Republican colleagues are not working with us to find a bipartisan agreement to prevent the government shutdown and address the healthcare crisis. We know that even when they float ideas--which we surely do appreciate--in the end, the President appears to make the call. He made the call on tariffs, even though so many of our Republican colleagues disagree with him on that. He made the call on certain nominees like R.F.K., Jr. He made the call when it came to certain provisions in the ``Big Beautiful Betrayal'' bill, which many of our colleagues didn't like, including the nutrition program decision at the end to reward the 10 States with the highest error rate when it comes to SNAP. I know none of them are in the Midwest.

That is why my Democratic colleagues and I want to reach an agreement, not only with the Republicans in this Chamber, but we also need the President at the table. He prides himself for the ``Art of the Deal,'' and it is time for him to make a deal. We are working so hard to make sure that more than 20 million Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act--it is called different things in different States; in my State, it is called MNsure--have access to affordable health coverage. It tends to be a lot of individual buyers in the market. It tends to be a lot of small businesses. And over a quarter of the farmers in this country rely on it.

Again, it is called different things in different States, but it is a plan to allow people who maybe aren't at a big corporation to be able to have healthcare. A while back, maybe they didn't want to leave a big company or if they left without being in a big company or in the government or something like that, they couldn't even get healthcare at all. That is why the Affordable Care Act was passed.

I would make a lot of improvements to it, and we do have some opportunities to do that. But right now, we need to make sure we don't push them off a healthcare insurance premium cliff. This is on top of the draconian Medicaid cuts that are going to push 15 million people off their healthcare that were in the One Big Beautiful Bill and also the Medicare cuts, which no one intended to have $500 billion in Medicare cuts, I guess, of our colleagues on the other side. But the debt accumulated from the bill of $4 trillion was so big, it triggered automatic Medicare cuts, which are hitting and going to hit rural hospitals, which they are now putting into their bottom line.

While they are staring that down and the Medicaid cuts, they are also looking at the fact that so many of their patients and people who visit rural clinics--those who often tend to be in the hospitals are on the Affordable Care Act because rural areas--and I am focused on rural areas because I went on a 13-county tour in my State--rural areas tend to have more people that are small business owners percentagewise and also that are farmers and ranchers.

So this is not a December thing; this is not a January thing; this is a now thing because those premiums are hitting November 1 when that market opens up. Right now, millions of Americans are staring down the reality that their healthcare premiums could double. For many families, that will mean making impossible choices to make ends meet or losing coverage altogether.

This is preventable, but we have to act now. Over 20 million Americans are enrolled in an Affordable Care Act health insurance plan. If we don't act, they are going to be forced to make impossible decisions. And that doubling number that says the premiums are going to double came out of a study just this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation. If Congress doesn't come together in a bipartisan way to extend these credits, these families, farmers, ranchers, small business owners, entrepreneurs, seniors, people living in rural communities will have to pay an average of double every month, hundreds of dollars more every month--not every year, every month--to keep their health insurance.

In Minnesota, nearly 90,000 people will see their premiums increase by double digits. You can say: Well, I am not on that kind of healthcare. I work at such and such company. You don't know the day, especially with these tariffs, when people are starting to get laid off at manufacturing companies like John Deere or that a farmer's business goes bankrupt--his farm goes bankrupt because bankruptcies for small farms are at an alltime high in the last 5 years--you don't know when it is going to be you. It is like a lottery, especially right now, with the crazy things going on in this economy. So even for people who aren't on the Affordable Care Act, this affects them.

For many, this will put healthcare coverage out of reach. This is not political theater, I say to the President, after he posted that offensive video. This is not a joke. These are real Americans who are facing these challenges.

The loss of this tax credit will raise premiums for everyone. Minnesotans have already started to receive notice that their costs will increase. One constituent is bracing for more than a 27-percent increase in their premium next year. Another whose husband's job was just eliminated called the 19-percent increase in health insurance costs their family is facing incomprehensible with the loss of income that they already face. And this is before adding in the extra costs people will be forced to take on if the tax credits are not extended.

So, if you noticed, I used those numbers 19 and 20, and you are thinking: Well, she just said they doubled. This is before that happens. This is what is happening in the market right now because of a number of factors going on that the President should be dealing with.

People are going to be socked with this, smacked with this, right while the price of groceries has been going up. I think the President promised he was going to bring costs down on day 1, and we are on something like day 255, and the opposite is happening. Anyone who goes into a grocery store and walks out and looks at their receipt knows exactly what I am talking about. As to the people who are in the grocery aisle and see the cost of beef, they know what I am talking about. As to the people who get their electricity bills, they know what I am talking about. Those aren't deepfakes. Those aren't fake videos that the President puts up on Truth Social. Those are real bills.

So, especially as this is going on because of these tariffs--and could I just add, since I have the floor here, as to the latest on tariffs on sofas and cabinets and lumber? It is already too expensive for Americans to buy a house or to rent a house or to rent an apartment, and now we are going to see major increases to home furnishings--and while we are in the middle of a housing crisis. It is literally one of the worst things he could do right now, but he did it.

So all that is not nothing. All of that kind of sets the stage for why the healthcare cost, which is one of the most expensive for people just on a yearly basis, is so devastating.

One of my constituents shared that while they planned for higher premiums, they didn't expect a more than $2,000 increase for the same coverage next year. Like so many others, they were concerned that even if they switched to a cheaper plan--and you know how that is. You are betting, and you are trying to guess and estimate what is going to go wrong in your family. Is your kid going to have some kind of surgery or break a leg? Is your husband going to have to have some kind of healthcare checkup that will be expensive? You have to always calculate those things. Like so many others, again, they were thinking ``Well, should I switch to a cheaper plan to save money and then hope I don't get sick?'' and then they would be more exposed to higher costs. Those are the kinds of things people are doing right now.

It is like the woman who Jeanne Shaheen had at a spotlight forum, which we did this last week, who had M.S. She had actually talked to her doctor about whether she could ration--kind of like people used to do with insulin for diabetes before we put those caps on insulin--could she ration her medication for M.S. The doctor said: No. That is not how this works. It will just grow the pressure in your brain and make your symptoms worse.

Another Minnesotan wrote to me that without the tax credits, their family of four would have to downgrade their health plan and spend significantly more on their health insurance than they do on their mortgage.

Another said that he expected his family would have to pay an additional $16,000 per year for their health coverage if they had no healthcare tax credits.

One Minnesotan shared:

I cannot absorb additional costs and will be forced into a catastrophic plan if these reported double digit increases go into effect.

Just because someone can't afford to stay insured doesn't mean they need healthcare less.

One of the things that I learned that maybe I hadn't thought through when I went to these rural hospitals was the fact that because there is a high percentage of these farmers and people in small towns on these plans--ours is called MNsure, like I said--they are already hit by the Medicaid cuts--the hospitals--by the Medicare cuts because it is an older population, but they actually cared a lot about this--the doctors, the nurses, the people running the hospitals--because they know that the people won't be able to afford this if these premiums double. They will choose not to get healthcare insurance. Then what will happen is they will end up in their emergency rooms in hospitals that are already strapped thin, and they won't be able to afford--they will treat them, but they won't be able to afford it for a long period of time. So they, time and time again, mention to me that these affordable tax credits expiring or not being maintained will create a major problem.

Already, approximately one-third of Americans report not taking medications as prescribed due to the costs.

Jason, from Pennsylvania, was able to get lifesaving coverage when he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

He said:

It's only because of the premium tax credits that I've been able to afford that coverage.

Now faced with the expiration of these credits, he understands the consequences for people like him.

He said:

If you're faced with a choice of bankruptcy or debt or saving your life, you're probably going to choose your life, but the consequences of that, of having an immense amount of debt--the rest of your life could be ruined because of that.

Another cancer survivor who has always made health insurance a priority also fears what unaffordable health insurance could mean for patients like her.

She said:

It means that I don't have to wait around . . . to find out about a disease that could have been cured if it had been detected soon enough. [The insurance] means I don't have to forgo my entire life savings and my home because of medical bills. I don't have to forgo lifesaving treatment because I can't afford it, and that's all about to change. Without the tax credit, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to afford health care--the kind of health care that's going to save my life.

Already, as I noted, because of Medicaid cuts that were passed in the big, beautiful betrayal of a bill, more than 300 rural hospitals, 200 health centers, and 500 nursing homes are likely to close. This means less accessible care for rural communities, longer drives to access care, fewer places to seek care in an emergency, and more hours taken away from work for more caregiving or other responsibilities. Fewer patients will go to that doctor's visit or get that lifesaving screening. They will not get the surgeries they need. Many will get sicker. Ultimately, as I noted, more patients are going to end up in emergency rooms, and these hospitals are going to have to take on the additional burden of more uncompensated care.

None of this happens in a vacuum. As I noted, these Medicaid cuts-- and Medicaid provides healthcare for at least one in five rural Minnesotans, more than 31 percent of children in our State, and more than half of all nursing home residents across our State. So this is about seniors, people with disabilities, and kids, and that is why Medicaid is so important.

For me, my dad, in his later years, got late-onset Alzheimer's. He was in one place, and then we moved him to another place. But I knew the exact date as to when his savings were going to go away, and we were going into those savings. Sadly, we lost him. But I knew that exact date because I was going to have to move him to another nursing home--another assisted living--that took Medicaid, and I made plans with them. I knew that date.

So many people in this country know that date. Even if they are not a senior who is relying on Medicaid, their kids, their spouses, their grandkids kind of know when those savings--if they had any savings to begin with--are going to run out.

So Medicaid goes way beyond the individuals who have no savings at all. It actually helps people who do have some savings. It helps people who have worked their lives through, like my dad. Medicaid is there as a safety net for people.

Over the last few months, I have heard from thousands of constituents, including seniors in Minnesota, from Sunrise Village in Milaca that I visited, to Senior Living at Watkins in Winona, to the Pillars of Prospect Park and Episcopal Homes in the metro. They are worried about their healthcare.

I heard from one constituent from Inver Grove Heights, who told me that Medicaid helps her to afford the cost of her father's memory care.

I think about what a constituent who works with adults with disabilities told me. She is a mental health therapist for a woman who had a tracheotomy and is wheelchair-bound and requires nursing care. She is also the aunt of a man with Down syndrome, with many needs, who is in a residential home.

She said: I am concerned about the possible Medicaid service cuts to the people who most need it.

I have also heard from a constituent named Lola, whose daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. A social worker advised Lola that her employer-based insurance may not cover the cancer treatments her daughter needed, and she connected her with Medicaid. She said that ``Medicaid helped completely'' with the surgeries and the T-cell therapy. Lola said, ``Using my own insurance would have caused a lot of delays, because it would not have covered'' what she needed.

I heard from Robby, who, after years in an adult foster care facility, now lives independently with a roommate because of Medicaid's disability waiver and community-based services.

I have gotten to meet some of these incredible Minnesotans while visiting care providers who help people with disabilities.

I think about the progress we have made so people can either live in their homes or they can live in a group home, and they can have jobs. We just can't go backwards.

People will feel the impacts of these cuts, and we know it.

I will close with this: After learning that her insurance cost is set to skyrocket next year, a woman asked:

What can you and the Senate do to make sure I don't have to stop getting my insurance?

We can do something, and it is something that so many of my colleagues agree with, especially after the cuts that were made, especially after the bludgeoning tariffs and what they are doing to the cost of things for people. It is not going to fix everything, that is for sure, but it is going to save a lot of lives, and it is going to help people contain costs so they don't go over that cliff.

As Minnesota's former Senator--I have his desk--Hubert Humphrey once said: The moral test of government isn't just how it treats the young and the healthy; it is also how it treats the sick, the elderly, and people with disabilities. That is definitely true for us right now, and I believe this is a moral test for all Americans.

At a time when so many families are struggling just to make ends meet, we can't sit back here and just play a blame game and look at the polls and da, da, da. We can do something. It is really pretty simple: We must work to protect Americans' access to healthcare. We must protect our rural hospitals. We must address our healthcare crisis.

As I know, it is not a December or a January problem, it is a now problem, and it is completely within our grasp to do this, and it is certainly within the President's grasp to bring his party with him.

So stop, Mr. President, posting those fake, offensive videos, and start helping Americans with their healthcare.

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