Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Urgent Need For Senate Republicans To Vote With Democrats To Extend ACA Premium Tax Credits And Avert Devastating Health Care Costs For[...]

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor calling on Senate Republicans to abandon their "hodgepodge of half-baked ideas" and join with Senate Democrats in their final chance to stop health care costs from skyrocketing for Americans before the end of the year. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Tomorrow is a moment of truth for Senate Republicans: are they going to help bring health care costs down? Or are they going to sabotage our health care system and send premiums through the roof? That's what's at stake when the Senate votes tomorrow.

We have 21 days until January 1^st. After that, people's health care bills will start going through the roof-double, triple, even more. People will not be able to afford their health care. Millions will lose it altogether. Tens of millions will pay much more than they can afford. As deductibles and co-pays go up as different doctors leave plans. And you could have had a doctor that's been treating your child for a chronic condition for years, and you trust that doctor. He or she is gone. You have to start over with someone who is less accessible, less friendly, and more expensive.

So, there's only one way to avoid all of this. The only realistic path left is what Democrats are proposing: a clean, direct extension of current tax credits.

But even now, it looks like Republicans still don't get it. Yesterday, Leader Thune announced that he'd bring another proposal, a Republican proposal - if you can even call it that - to the floor: the Cassidy-Crapo hodgepodge of half-baked ideas. This fundamental core idea has failed over and over and over again.

I want to be very clear about what this Republican bill represents: junk insurance.

It is dead on arrival.

Their proposal does nothing to bring down sky-high premiums. It does not extend the ACA premium tax credits even for a single day. Instead, Republicans want to send people eighty dollars a month and pretend that's going to fix everything.

It's a you're-on-your-own bill. You got sick? You have cancer? You need a complete top-to-bottom checkup because something is ailing you? Republicans are telling you, Americans, you're on your own. We're not helping you-that's what they say.

Republicans want to send people $80 a month and pretend that's going to fix everything. And to even qualify for a check, you have to sign up for bronze plans that come with outrageously high deductibles-$7,500 or $10,000 a year for individuals. Under the Cassidy-Crapo plan, a 60-year-old Florida couple making $85,000 would see premiums go up by $21,000 and their deductible would go from $0 to $7,000. That's a $28,000 net out of their pockets. How are they going to pay for it? Republicans, do you have an answer for them? This junk insurance won't help them one bit. Cassidy-Crapo is not a health care plan. It's not a plan at all. It's an excuse. It's a fig leaf. Because Republicans are so divided and can't come up with a plan that unites them, they have proposed this fig leaf.

My guess is most Republicans themselves are grimacing that they even have to vote for this thing. How is a one-time check supposed to help if you're paying $1,000 or $2,000 a month for health insurance? The Cassidy-Crapo plan-if you can even call it that-is downright insulting.

What we need to do is prevent premiums from skyrocketing, and only our bill does that. It's the last train out of the station to avoid these sky-high premiums from going up and up and up.

But Republicans? They seem to care more about banning abortion than lowering premiums. This bill is loaded with a poison pill, so everyone knows it can't come close to passing. By putting that poison abortion pill in it, they basically are saying to Democrats, forget about it, it's not even close.

So, the bottom line is that the Republicans do not have a serious plan to fix our healthcare problems. But we Democrats do-a clean, simple extension to prevent premiums from going up. Republicans still have a day to do the right thing.

Democrats are fighting for the American people. Republicans are fighting with each other.

Republicans: stop fighting with each other, try to help the American people, and vote for our plan. I implore my Republican colleagues-we need thirteen of you to push this bill over the finish line. If Republicans vote this bill down, they will unleash chaos throughout the country.

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