Cantwell Takes Majority To Task Over Refusal to Address Skyrocketing Health Insurance Costs: “You Have No Ideas.”

Cantwell Takes Majority To Task Over Refusal to Address Skyrocketing Health Insurance Costs: "You Have No Ideas."

Amid a government shutdown, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee - the committee with jurisdiction over health insurance costs - instead held a hearing on cryptocurrency; Unless Congress acts immediately, Americans who purchase health insurance on the open market will be forced to pay more than double for their premiums next year

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Just now, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, delivered a speech on the Senate floor taking her Republican colleagues to task over their refusal to meaningfully negotiate on measures that would help stabilize the cost of health insurance and end the federal government shutdown.

"You have no ideas on how you are going to help keep people insured, or keep these hospitals operating. So instead of meaningful negotiations, my colleagues have decided they don't want to tell us what their ideas are to deal with the current crisis. It is not a next year problem, it is a today problem," Sen. Cantwell said. "The Finance Committee, they could have come up with a solution. They could have come up with a meeting today. Instead, they were having a hearing on cryptocurrency. If you thought this issue was so important, why didn't you have a hearing today on how to make health insurance more affordable for the American people?"

She continued: "You don't want to deal with the health insurance problems of the American people. So instead of working with their counterparts, or the House of Representatives -- oh, wait. The House of Representatives? They're not even here."

Video of her speech is available HERE; a transcript is HERE.

At midnight last night, the deadline for Congress to pass a new budget bill expired, triggering a federal government shutdown. Republican lawmakers refused to negotiate with Democrats on extending the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) - the primary request of Democrats that would help reverse healthcare costs set to spike due to policy choices made in President Donald Trump's Big Ugly Bill - and fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass a new budget. Unless Congress acts urgently, Americans who purchase coverage on the open market will end up locked into new unaffordable rates in 2026. For nearly all states, the open enrollment period begins on Nov. 1 (with the exception of Idaho, which begins on Oct. 15).

A new Kaiser Family Foundation report released yesterday found that if the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits are permitted to expire, premium payments will more than double next year for the average American purchasing insurance on the ACA marketplace.

Last week, Sen. Cantwell released a snapshot report detailing the drastic increase in how much Americans who purchase health insurance on the open market will pay next year. The snapshot report, which included information on premium increases across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, finds that the health insurance companies with the largest market share in 29 states will or propose to charge at least 20% more per month for care - further squeezing Americans already facing an affordability crisis. Health premiums typically rise every year, but this year's increases are expected to be much larger than last year's. This report found that in 20 states, the state's top exchange plan insurer is requesting, or has already been granted, a rate increase for 2026 that's at least 20 percentage points higher than the rate change that same insurer was approved for in 2025.

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The Spokesman-Review: With government shutdown imminent, Cantwell highlights Democrats' key demand: Stopping sharp increase in health insurance costs

Sen. Cantwell also sent a letter to President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries last week urging them to act before the open enrollment period begins.

The full snapshot report is available HERE; the full text of Sen. Cantwell's letter to President Trump and Congressional leadership is HERE.

In September, the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner announced the 2026 rate increases for ACA marketplace enrollees in Washington state - next year, Washingtonianswill pay an average of 21% more per month for coverage, nearly double the rate increase from 2024 to 2025. Depending on the individual circumstances, that amount could be higher. For example, Sen. Cantwell's snapshot report found that a family of four living in King County state making $80,000 per year, the cost of a benchmark silver plan would increase by $297 per month without the enhanced premium tax credit extension. Their total cost would rise from $263 per month, or $3,160 per year, to $560 per month, or $6,720 per year.

President Trump's Big Ugly Bill included multiple provisions expected to drive up health care costs, including deep cuts to Medicaid, new hurdles to accessing coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and failure to extend the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, which help subsidize health insurance for more than 214,000 Washingtonians and will expire at the end of 2025.

Sen. Cantwell convened stakeholders and small business owners in Spokane and Vancouver in August to raise the alarm about skyrocketing health insurance costs. Video of the press conference in Vancouver is HERE; video of the press conference in Spokane is HERE.

Economists expect the increase will squeeze business owners - already facing uncertain futures thanks to President Trump's chaotic tariff wars - and force them to find ways to tighten their belts. Many individuals who purchase their own plans on the open market are likely to find themselves priced out of the market altogether, or forced to make deep cuts in their own household budgets to compensate. As an analysis from Kaiser Family Foundation, a leading national nonprofit focused on health care policy, notes, insurers anticipate that as some healthier members leave their plans when their subsidies decrease, that will "creat[e] an enrollee base that is less healthy and more expensive on average."

People without health insurance tend to wait until their health problem is an emergency before seeking care in local hospitals. This leads to more crowded emergency rooms for everyone. And hospitals must factor the uncompensated cost of additional uninsured patients into already strained finances.