WATCH: In Floor Speech, Sen. Ossoff Urges Senate to Extend Affordable Care Act Tax Credits

"The whole conversation about these Affordable Care Act tax credits in this town and this building has been focused on the politics of this issue. This is life or death. People will die"

In June, Sen. Ossoff offered an amendment to the Trump budget bill to extend key Affordable Care Act tax credits, but Republicans blocked Sen. Ossoff's amendment

Washington, D.C. - Ahead of today's major vote in the U.S. Senate, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff urged Senators to put politics aside and extend ACA tax credits.

Sen. Ossoff spoke on the U.S. Senate Floor today to urge Republicans in the U.S. Senate to put politics aside and extend ACA tax credits before open enrollment ends this coming Monday, December 15.

The U.S. Senate will vote today on legislation to extend the ACA's enhanced premium tax credits for three years to prevent massive increases to Georgians' premiums.

If the ACA tax credits expire at the end of the year, 1.4 million Georgians could see their premiums double and 460,000 Georgians could lose health insurance altogether because they cannot afford the price increases.

"The whole conversation about these Affordable Care Act tax credits in this town and this building has been focused on the politics of this issue. This is life or death. People will die. This is one of the most consequential votes this Senate will take all year. By saying 'yay' or 'nay' to the clerk of the Senate later today, Senators will decide whether people live or people die. Senators will decide whether Georgians and folks across the country are financially ruined or have a shot," Sen. Ossoff said.

"Half a million Georgians, it's projected, will lose their coverage altogether. More than a million more will see their premiums double or worse. This is a choice. What's the point of having all this power if you won't use it to help people," Sen. Ossoff continued.

Click here to watch Sen. Ossoff's remarks.

Sen. Ossoff has been working for months to extend the ACA tax credits.

In June, Sen. Ossoff offered an amendment to the Trump budget bill to extend key Affordable Care Act tax credits, but Republicans blocked Sen. Ossoff's amendment.

In July and in August, Sen. Ossoff spoke alongside affected Georgians and warned about the upcoming premium hikes and urged Congress to take action to fix its mistake, and last week, Sen. Ossoff again spoke out about the urgent need to extend the ACA subsidies and prevent massive health care premium increases.

This fall, Sen. Ossoff's office also published testimonial videos of Georgians warning what may happen if ACA tax credits expire, with some warning they may not be able to afford care altogether.

This week, Sen. Ossoff spoke from the U.S. Senate to urge Senate Republicans to put politics aside and extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits before open enrollment ends this coming Monday, December 15.

Yesterday, Sen. Ossoff joined Protect Our Care Georgia and Georgians to highlight the human consequences if Congress fails to extend the ACA credits.

Please find a transcript of Sen. Ossoff's remarks below:

SEN. OSSOFF: "Mr. President, what is an American supposed to do who loses health insurance in the middle of chemotherapy?

"That's the question confronting one of my constituents right now: a Georgian who wrote into my office, a woman in her early 60s in the middle of a breast cancer fight. She waits tables for a living.

"If Republicans allow these Affordable Care Act benefits to expire, her premiums will go up by hundreds of dollars, and she says she'll have to cancel her health coverage. She needs chemo monthly to fight her cancer. What is she supposed to do?

"Or my constituent with diabetes, who just had major surgery for another health issue just a few months ago and told me that when she learned that this Congress might let these tax credits expire, she cried.

"She cried not for herself, she cried because she feared that others would die as a result of this policy choice, and then she got her own insurance quote for next year - hundreds of dollars higher than she's paying now. A diabetic in Georgia who just had major surgery, who says she too will have to cancel her health insurance, and she cried again when she got that insurance quote, because suddenly she feared that she might die. She might die. What is she supposed to do?

"Another constituent who reached out to my office this week, a single mother who relies on medicine that if she is not insured, would cost her $80,000 per year without insurance. Her premiums about to go up by hundreds of dollars. She too says she probably will have to cancel her insurance. What is she supposed to do? How is she going to afford medicine that costs, without insurance, $80,000 per year?

"The whole conversation about these Affordable Care Act tax credits in this town and this building has been focused on the politics of this issue. This is life or death. People will die.

"This is one of the most consequential votes this Senate will take all year. By saying 'yay' or 'nay' to the clerk of the Senate later today, Senators will decide whether people live or people die. Senators will decide whether Georgians and folks across the country are financially ruined or have a shot.

"Half a million Georgians, it's projected, will lose their coverage altogether. More than a million more will see their premiums double or worse. This is a choice. What's the point of having all this power if you won't use it to help people?

"I remember just a few weeks ago, members of this body wrote into a funding bill half million-dollar payments to themselves. Do you remember that? But our own constituents who stand to lose their health insurance in the middle of a cancer fight, what are they supposed to do?

"My constituents cannot afford this, and some of my constituents cannot survive it. I urge my Republican colleagues to put the politics aside and vote to extend these tax credits for the health of our constituents. Thank you, Mr. President."

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