WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), leader of the Senate Democrats’ #ACAworks campaign, released the following statement after Republicans introduced legislation to strip health insurance from millions of Americans. This is the latest misguided attempt by Republicans to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, which has provided health insurance coverage and new benefits to millions of Americans, and reduced federal health spending. Republicans have tried to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act over 50 times.


Last year, over 8 million Americans signed up for new health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, and today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that since Open Enrollment began on November 15, 2014, nearly 6.8 million people selected a plan or were automatically re-enrolled in the Federally Facilitated Marketplaces. This data does not include additional people who signed up for plans through various state exchanges, such as Access Health CT.


It’s not surprising that in the first month of holding the Senate majority, Republicans are rehashing tired political fights that harm the American people. Their latest move seeks to take insurance away from millions of people – many of whom haven’t had insurance before. They’ve tried this not once, not twice, but over 50 times since the passage of the ACA. 


When you step back from Washington partisanship and look at the facts, it’s obvious that the Affordable Care Act is working. The uninsured rate plummeted over the past year, health care spending grew at the lowest level since 1960 and patients, rather than insurance companies, are in charge of their health care.


The start of a new Congress is the perfect time to put politics aside and work together to make things better and keep moving forward. But this latest move is just more of the same. Republicans are clearly only interested in rehashing the same tired, partisan fights to the detriment of millions of Americans.