Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Slamming Trump And Republicans For Refusing To Address The Healthcare Affordability Crisis

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor slamming Donald Trump and Republicans for pushing their half-baked healthcare ideas like Health Savings Accounts that will do nothing to address the Republican healthcare crisis. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

After Democrats pushed Republicans for months to fix ACA premiums, Americans are now about to fall of a healthcare cliff, and Donald Trump has no plan to fix it whatsoever. Maybe he thinks healthcare is affordable for people. It isn’t for most.

If Donald Trump were smart, he would have worked with Democrats at the drop of a hat to extend the ACA tax credits for at least another year. We offered him that. But instead, he is telling Republicans to push half-baked ideas like Health Savings Accounts and direct checks.

Let me say it very plainly: Donald Trump and Republicans’ ideas about checks and HSAs are nonstarters for Democrats because they are deeply flawed and woefully insufficient for our nation’s healthcare problems. If Republicans push these flawed policies, they will go nowhere in the Senate.

First, neither HSAs nor a lump sum check will do anything to actually help people afford insurance. If your insurance plan goes from $1,000 a month to $4,000 a month, a one-time check is not going to go very far. For cancer patients who pay thousands of dollars for life-saving medication in one month, their HSA will do nothing to help them afford care.

Second, implementing changes this complex would be practically impossible before the end of the year. People are signing up for health insurance right now, and Health Savings Accounts cannot be used to pay for premiums.

Third, Republicans always talk about “waste, fraud and abuse” and have railed on insurance companies. But the Republican policies will do nothing, absolutely nothing, about either problem. So, either Republicans don’t understand how healthcare works, or their complaints about fraud and abusive insurance companies are cynical and disingenuous.

That’s why Democrats insist that one of the best things we can do right now is extend the ACA premium tax credits, because when people talk about costs, healthcare is near the top of the list of worries, if not the very top.

It’s shameful that Donald Trump and Republicans have given up entirely on solving the healthcare premium crisis. When people’s monthly payments spike next year, they’ll know it was Republicans that made it happen. And more than that, they’ll know that Democrats are the ones who are fighting on their behalf to lower costs and rebuild the sunny American optimism that our country desperately needs.

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