Healthcare

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, as everyone in this Chamber knows and everyone in our great Nation knows, we are in the midst of a healthcare crisis. Now, the word ``crisis'' probably is the most overused term in the political lexicon, but the American people know that this crisis is real and urgent because they know, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. That old saying epitomizes the importance of healthcare when it affects our children, who can't get healthcare for themselves; our seniors, who also depend on others; and everyday Americans across the country, who are at their kitchen tables tonight or at their workplaces or are with their families, wondering: When will it happen? When will I get sick, not just with a virus or the common cold? When will there be a healthcare crisis for me?

And it happens to everybody. Nobody is invincible. Everybody needs healthcare, and it should be regarded as a human right.

We face an imminent and real and present crisis right now for millions of Americans who will no longer be able to afford healthcare insurance, beginning in days or weeks, because premiums are skyrocketing. They will rise by double or triple what they are now. Insurance companies are already raising premium rates. Americans are beginning a period of open enrollment. In Connecticut, it begins on November 1, when they will have to make choices--literally, in effect, writing checks to insurance companies and saying: I am going to afford this plan. But many Americans will find no plan affordable if we fail to provide for them an extension of the healthcare tax credit that has enabled them to afford health insurance up to now under a measure that we passed and the President signed.

My Republican colleagues continue to ignore the needs and interests of the American people by blocking our efforts to fix this imminent, immediate crisis. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is out of town, the President is out of touch in Asia, and we are left with the clock ticking. Time is not on our side.

Let's be very clear. Republicans control the House of Representatives, which hasn't shown up to work in over a month, but they continue to be paid; Republicans control the Senate; and maybe most importantly, the Republicans control the White House. This government shutdown is happening on President Trump's watch. It is on him. These skyrocketing healthcare costs are happening on his watch too.

Instead of fighting for the American people, President Trump and Republicans have spent the past year seeking to strip millions of Americans of healthcare, food assistance, student loan support, and much more that is vital to their quality of life and, for many of them, their very survival.

Democrats have been sounding the alarm over the ongoing threats to healthcare and the impact it will have on every American, but Republicans seemingly--I say ``seemingly''--refuse to listen. I think they are listening but are in denial because instead of working with Democrats to prevent Americans from being crushed by impending medical debt, Republicans have wasted valuable time blocking every single Democratic effort to lower costs for families.

To be clear, if Republicans refuse to join Democrats in protecting the American people from massive increases in their healthcare costs, millions of people will suffer, and healthcare premiums will rise to incomprehensible levels.

Just this week, Connecticut launched a window-shopping tool that allows residents to preview their healthcare options for next year. It allows consumers to see how costs compare to next year's costs. Very frankly, the options are preposterous.

For example, a couple in their sixties living in Hartford, CT--our capital--making $100,000 a year will go from paying $260.38 to $2,614.60. That is for the same plan. It is an Anthem plan. They are going from the cost this year of $260.83 to, next year, $2,614.60. By the way, they are getting nothing more. It is the same plan. There is no additional coverage, and they are paying over $2,500 more each month.

It is, in effect, a Republican healthcare tax on a family in their sixties making $100,000 a year--that is a middle-class family--in Hartford, CT.

Let me give you another example. A family of four living in Hartford and making $159,767, roughly $160,000 a year--the average salary for a family of four in our State--would be forced to pay $1,159.52 more. They go from $796.65 this year to $1,956.17 next year. I don't know how they can afford it. The simple answer is, probably they can't. And that family will be at risk of financial catastrophe without healthcare insurance coverage.

Already--let me just emphasize, already--healthcare debt is the major cause of bankruptcy in this country. It hurts our whole economy. So even if you don't care about a family of four living in Hartford or a couple in their sixties, even if the humanitarian impacts are impervious to you, think about the economic consequences. Think about your pocketbook, not theirs. Bankruptcy will increase along with the suffering.

These price hikes, the taxes on healthcare, are absolutely absurd and abhorrent. It is incomprehensible to expect any American enrolled in one of these plans to have the disposable income necessary to keep their coverage. This added cost is money that could be used to cover weeks' worth of groceries, heat, rent, or mortgage.

This added cost is money that many individuals and families simply don't have. They won't pay these prices because they simply cannot. Instead, many will be forced to go without health insurance, which raises the costs for everyone.

Very bluntly, these rates will not just impact people enrolled in the ACA marketplace. If Republicans have their way, the entire healthcare system will feel the effects, and every individual trying to receive care, regardless of what kind of insurance they have, will be impacted. The ripple effect is coming to you. Even if you don't have an ACA plan, even if you are paying some part of your employer's insurance cost, this rising tide will truly lift everybody's boat in terms of costs.

Republicans are making Connecticut families and Americans across the country choose between affordable healthcare or putting food on the table or heating their homes this winter or buying clothes for their kid. It is cruel. It is unnecessary. It will undoubtedly cost people their health and their lives.

Open enrollment is less than 5 days away now in Connecticut. Time is not on our side. We have no time to waste. If you don't feel this sense of urgency, listen to your constituents.

I choose to stand with them--with small business owners, with working families, with everyday Americans who will be crushed by these costs, and their futures will be crippled--at least financially.

It is paramount in my mind that Republican colleagues listen to those constituents, to those small business owners, to those families and millions of Americans and healthcare professionals who have been speaking truth to power.

This government shutdown can end tonight if we choose the path forward to guarantee an extension of the healthcare tax credits and add it to the government funding measure that is now before this body.

The House of Representatives needs to come back to do its job. President Trump will come back from Asia. The American people deserve a real solution that preserves Americans' healthcare.

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