Cantwell Responds To Trump’s Rudimentary Health Care Proposal: “We Need More Than A One-Page Plan” As ACA Open Enrollment Window Closes and Senate Majority Blocks Efforts to[...]

Cantwell Responds To Trump's Rudimentary Health Care Proposal: "We Need More Than A One-Page Plan" As ACA Open Enrollment Window Closes and Senate Majority Blocks Efforts to Address Rising Costs

Today, Trump released his long-awaited plan to lower health care costs that amounted to a 5-minute video & a fact sheet; Cantwell mocked unserious proposal on Senate floor: "There are a lot of details that go into something that's 18% of U.S. GDP"

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, delivered a speech on the Senate floor calling on the Trump Administration to release a serious proposal to lower health care costs for Americans.

Hours ago, President Donald Trump released his long-overdue plan to purportedly tackle spiking health care costs. The rudimentary effort arrived today, January 15 - the very last day of open enrollment for thousands of Washingtonians and nearly three weeks after the expiration of the critical ACA enhanced premium tax credits. His plan amounts to one five-minute video and a single-page fact sheet.

"Here we are on one of the biggest crises that we could do something about right now, health care, and we're not doing anything about health care," Sen. Cantwell said.

"Our colleagues have not chosen to address this issue. The House passed an extension, a three-year extension, and yet, here we are about to leave for a week, and our colleagues in the Senate will not even bring that extension up for a vote.

"80,000 people in my state are now at risk of losing their health insurance. So, I asked our colleagues to do something about this. I see the President released a one-page health care framework today, and I'm glad he's getting in that, but Mr. President, today is the end of enrollment. We need more than a one-page plan. There are a lot of details that go into something that's 18% of U.S. GDP. This is almost one in every $5 spent in the American economy.

"And after 15 years, we've heard nothing really from our Republican colleagues on how they're going to drive down the cost of health care. So, my constituents now looking at these increased inflation numbers also know that they can't afford to get sick. If they're going to lose this health care, they can't afford the impacts of the economy, and they can't afford the impacts of health care disappearing out from under them.

"Mr. President, it is time we address inflation on a daily basis here. It is time we really think about what we can do to help the U.S. economy, help Americans keep pace and help Americans restore the health care that they deserve to have."

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

Yesterday, a Republican Senator blocked an effort to pass a clean three-year extension of the ACA Enhanced Premium Tax Credits which cleared the House or Representative last week on a bipartisan vote of 230 to 196. Last month, Senate Republicans refused to advance a vote on extending the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits before they expired at the end of 2025. As a result, the credits have since lapsed, and millions of people who purchase their own health insurance have started off 2026 with record-high premium costs. Republicans' failure to negotiate on an extension of the credits was the subject of the October 2025 federal government shutdown. During that debate, Senate Democrats pressed for a clean, three-year extension of the credits and secured a vote for such an extension, but most Senate Republicans voted against it. The recent successful House vote shows there is bipartisan support for that approach, but Senate Republicans again blocked it.

Today marks the final day of open enrollment for those seeking health coverage on the ACA marketplace for 2026. Those who could not afford premiums without the critical tax credits had to choose today whether to strain their finances or forgo coverage altogether. Without the relief that these tax credits could have offered, hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians are now locked-in on record-high premiums.

In October, Sen. Cantwell released a case study showing the actual, shocking increase in health premiums for a sample middle-class family purchasing health insurance on the ACA marketplace across all 39 WA counties in real dollars: The average increase across all 39 WA counties is $1,049/month or $12,590/year for people who relied on the tax credits.

Also in October, Sen. Cantwell released a data analysis showing a county-by-county breakdown of where Washingtonians would be hardest hit by the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits lapsing. According to that data, there are seven counties where the average health insurance premium is doubling for people who relied on the tax credit. All seven of these hardest-hit counties are in rural regions east of the Cascades: Yakima, Grant, Adams, Franklin, Douglas, Chelan, and Ferry counties. A one-pager on the data can be viewed HERE.

The 2026 health insurance price increases aren't just impacting people who rely on the tax credit -- in Washington state, the average spike in premium costs is 21.2% for all people who purchase health insurance on the open market, including small business owners and freelancers.