Warren, Schumer, Health Influencers Sound Alarm on Government Shutdown

Warren, Schumer, Health Influencers Sound Alarm on Government Shutdown

Video of Press Conference (Youtube)

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) hosted a press conference alongside health care creators in the U.S. Capitol to sound the alarm on the government shutdown and health care affordability crisis.

In a first-of-its-kind format, the senators invited content creators who are also health care professionals to share their stories at the press conference. The creators include Dr. Anita Patel, Dr. Fran Haydanek, Dr. Heather Irobunda, and Nikki Sapiro Vinckier, PA.

"While Donald Trump builds a fancy new ballroom for himself and his donors, Americans across the country are getting notices in the mail telling them their health care premiums are going up by thousands of dollars a year," said Senator Elizabeth Warren. "Democrats are fighting back because we believe that health care isn't just for rich people. No one should go bankrupt because they got sick."

"Every mother deserves to walk into a delivery room without fear of losing everything-her home, her health insurance coverage, or her life-just because she dared to have a baby in America. We need to extend the subsidies that make care affordable," said Dr. Fran Haydanek, a health care content creator and board-certified OBGYN. "I became an OBGYN to deliver healthy babies. I never imagined I'd have to stand here pleading for my patients' ability to afford the care that keeps them alive."

"I have intubated teenagers in diabetic comas because they were rationing insulin their family couldn't afford. I have battled uncontrolled seizures in the ICU, which can cause permanent brain damage, because parents had to choose between their child's seizure medications and paying their rent," said Dr. Anita Patel, a health care content creator and Board-certified pediatric critical care physician. "When health care costs become unbearable, lifesaving EpiPens do not get refilled, a child's sinus infection turns into meningitis, and ruptured appendicitis leads to septic shock from delayed care."

"A lot of times, my patients can't come to their prenatal appointments because they can't afford the $2.90 to take the bus or the train. Let's not make it harder for them," said Dr. Heather Irobunda, a health care content creator and board-certified OBGYN. "These folks are my neighbors. They're my friends. They're our friends, and they're valued members of our communities."

"Health care is not a bargaining chip. It's not a luxury. It's the foundation of all of our lives. And it's time for every lawmaker to start acting like it," said Nikki Sapiro Vinckier, a health care content creator and OBGYN Physician Assistant. "Caring about people shouldn't be radical. It should be part of their job."

It doesn't matter if you don't have Medicaid, if you don't have Affordable Care Act, it's going to affect all of us, because hospitals, which depend on Medicaid funding, which depend on insured patients having coverage, are going to go down as well, because they're already running on negative margins, said Dr. Karen Tang, a health care content creator and board-certified OBGYN.

Senator Warren has led the charge collaborating and working with influencers in the Senate. Senator Warren was the first member of the Senate to host a creator briefing on Capitol Hill and has hosted more than half a dozen virtual creator briefings. She was also the first member of Congress to invite a content creator-not a celebrity-to testify before Congress.

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