ICYMI: Congresswoman Sarah McBride Reflects on First Year in Congress on SiriusXM’s Julie Mason Show

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In case you missed it, yesterday, Delaware's Congresswoman Sarah McBride (D-DE) joined SiriusXM's Julie Mason Show to reflect on her first year in Congress-discussing accomplishments, challenges, and her priorities in the year ahead.

During the interview, Rep. McBride highlighted several key accomplishments from her first 11 months in office, including:

• Introducing more bipartisan legislation than any other freshman member of Congress;
• Returning nearly $4 million to Delawareans through federal agency casework;
• Restoring $1 billion in home health care funding nationwide through a bipartisan effort.

Rep. McBride, noted that there is still work to be done, but that her mission has been clear since the beginning:

"I said to my constituents," McBride said, "that I would work with anyone who was willing to work with me to defend Delaware or to deliver for Delaware and that I'd stand up to anyone who I thought was hurting Delaware."

McBride highlighted her primary focus heading into 2026 is preventing the expiration of the Affordable Care Act's Enhanced Premium Tax Credits (EPTCs). Without action by Congress, the expiration of the EPTCs will result in families around the country having to pay hundreds more per month for health care.

"We are currently in the beginning stages of a $1 trillion ticking time bomb going off in the center of the American health care system," said McBride. "We are essentially now living under Trumpcare…and at the end of this year, the ACA tax credits will expire, driving health care costs even higher for families."

Below are selected excerpts from the conversation. A full recording is available here.

Julie Mason: I'm so pleased to welcome to the show Congresswoman Sarah McBride. She is a Democrat of Delaware, US Rep at-large congressional district, so it's for the whole state.

Rep. Sarah McBride: Thank you so much for having me - probably the best introduction I've ever gotten.

Mason: So how did the first year go? How's it been?

McBride: Well, the last year has been a hell of a decade. you know, I ran for the seat and said to my constituents, as you mentioned across the state of Delaware, that I would work with anyone who was willing to work with me to defend Delaware or to deliver for Delaware - and that I'd stand up to anyone who I thought was hurting Delaware. And over the last year, unfortunately we've had to, as Democrats, defend our constituents a lot more than we would have hoped against the chaos, the incompetence, and the cruelty of the Trump administration.

But of course at the same time, despite the very warm welcome that I received from some of my colleagues here in Congress when I first arrived, I'm really proud that despite having to push back against the abuses of power of this administration, despite having to defend healthcare against the unprecedented cuts to Medicaid that we are seeing, despite having push like hell to fight like hell to extend the ACA tax credits, that I've also been able to really deliver for my constituents. I've introduced more bipartisan legislation than any other member of the freshman class, something that people probably didn't expect from the first out trans member of Congress in this political environment. We've been able to return nearly $4 million to my constituents and just last week we were able to team up with a Republican and successfully convince the Trump administration to restore $1 billion to home health care nationwide, protecting a really struggling part of our health care system.

And so, it's been eventful, productive, but obviously a lot of cruelty that is being inflicted on my constituents and a little bit of cruelty that I've been on the receiving end of from a handful of my colleagues.

…

Mason: I'd like to talk a little bit more about your home health care legislation though, because it strikes me, Congresswoman, that with health care just getting blown up in several different ways, home health care is going to become even more important in the coming years.

McBride: Well, there's no question that home healthcare is an increasingly critical part of our healthcare ecosystem. We have an aging population in the country. We have a particularly aging population in Delaware, as so many folks come to our wonderful coastal communities to retire. And as adults who are caring for aging parents increasingly struggle with the family caregiving responsibilities, and as more and more of our population ages, but seeks to age in place and with dignity, they're going to increasingly rely on our home health care system. It was an area of care I relied on as a family caregiver to my husband during his battle with terminal cancer, and it can make all of the difference. Not just in allowing people to struggle through illness or struggle through aging with dignity at home, but we know that when people are able to live with any kind of illness or disease, with dignity, it actually improves their health outcomes.

And so, home health is such a critical kind of care for so many people, but it's under increasing strain as more and more people are relying on it.

And the Trump administration earlier this year had proposed cutting Medicare rates by over a billion dollars for home health care. And so, I actually teamed up with a Republican colleague of mine from New Jersey, and we pushed back, and I'm, I'm proud that last week the Trump administration listened to us and reversed course, saving $1 billion in funding for home healthcare.

But look, we've got a lot more work to do in that particular space, because, even with that billion dollars, even with the status quo, it's not working for far too many people. It continues to be unaffordable and inaccessible like every area of health care for far too many people, and it's what I'm going to continue working on here in Congress alongside making sure that everyone has fully inclusive paid family and medical leave benefits, making sure that we're protecting vulnerable consumers, including seniors, from scams, and making sure that we're continuing to lower the cost of housing, childcare, and energy in this particular environment.

Mason: Indeed, I wonder what your assessment of the coming year in health care is going to look like. I mean, if Congress can't get anything done on these ACA subsidies and what's coming down the pike with entitlements, it's, I mean, a year from now, where are we going to be?

McBride: Well, we are, we are currently in the beginning stages of a $1 trillion ticking time bomb going off in the center of the American healthcare system. And to your point around the ACA tax credits, that's just the first part of that time bomb going off. We are essentially now living under Trumpcare. Donald Trump likes to own things and slap his name on them. Well, he now owns the American healthcare system. It is Trumpcare.

And at the end of this year, the Affordable Care Act tax credits without action by Congress will expire, and that means skyrocketing healthcare premiums for the millions of Americans that rely on the ACA marketplace for insurance, people seeing 100%, 200, 300% increases in their healthcare.

But the consequences of Trumpcare don't end there. A year from now, the largest cut to Medicaid in American history will go into effect. And in its totality, Trumpcare will leave 15 million more Americans without health coverage. But as that bomb goes off, those 15 million Americans, they will not only they will not be the only casualties of that bomb going off, because the reality is, when you have 15 million people who lose coverage, it's not that they never get care, it's that they get care when they're sicker and it's more expensive. And someone still has to pay for that, and that cost gets passed on to all other premium payers. And when you have $1 trillion removed from the American healthcare system, what happens to cash-strapped rural hospitals, health clinics, and doctors' offices, they cut services and, in some cases, close entirely, leaving those communities having to drive longer, wait longer, and take more time off work to get care. And that really is what Trumpcare is. It's 15 million more people uninsured and everyone else having to pay more and wait longer to get care.

…

Mason: So, these are the issues you plan to work on next year as well?

McBride: Looking ahead, certainly I'm going to continue… I hear about them every day when I'm in Delaware from my constituents. I'm going to continue working on these issues. You know, I mentioned my husband - I ran for office because of my experience as a caregiver to Andy when he battled terminal cancer, and despite losing his life, he knew how lucky he was. We knew how lucky we were to have health insurance, to have paid family and medical leave, and I just simply do not believe that in the wealthiest, most developed nation on Earth, that time and ability to get care should be a matter of luck. I think it should be the law of the land. And so long as there is air in my lungs and breath in my body, I will fight to make universal healthcare and universal paid family and medical leave a reality for every person. That's what I want to continue to spend my time on in Congress.

Mason: Congresswoman Sarah McBride is a Democrat of Delaware, the at-large member for the whole state. Thank you so much for joining me.

McBride: Thanks so much for having me.

Mason: My pleasure. Take care. Happy New Year.

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