WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) in a press call on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s vote Senate Democrats are forcing on a resolution to roll back the Trump administration’s rule on 1332 waivers, which the administration is using to sabotage Americans’ health care and undermine the critical pre-existing condition protections that more than 130 million Americans rely on.

“I'm glad that we're going to have a chance to vote on this,” said Murphy. “I've been listening to my Republican colleagues say for years and years that though they don't love everything about the Affordable Care Act, they want to protect people with pre-existing conditions. Well, here's their chance.”

Murphy continued: “They can take a vote, this week, that protects coverage and rates for people with pre-existing conditions and we'll see what they choose.”

Last week on the U.S. Senate floor, Murphy spoke on the importance of protecting pre-existing conditions and the Trump administration’s continued efforts to sabotage the American health care system. In June, Murphy offered an amendment to the Lower Health Care Costs Act during the HELP Committee markup requesting that the Trump administration provide information for states and Congress to better understand the potential consequences of repealing the ACA. Murphy also published an op-ed in the Hartford Courant on this in July and in Modern Healthcare  last month.

A full transcript of Murphy’s remarks are below:

“Thank you very much Senator Warner, thank you for bringing this resolution before the floor, thanks to Senator Schumer for convening us here today.

“The 1332 waivers were designed to allow states to innovate in order to cover more people, to reduce costs, and to provide better coverage. These junk plans do the exact opposite. The junk plans result in less people having coverage, it drives up costs for people with pre-existing conditions, and it offers bare bones coverage that really makes a mockery of the concept of insurance.

“I was in East Windsor, Connecticut this weekend, and as I was leaving an event, a woman came scurrying up to me to tell me about her experience with a junk plan. She had gotten on one of these plans and then when she went to access it for expensive medical treatment, she found out that it didn't cover her for anything.

“This is the experience that millions of Americans encounter and will encounter as the Trump administration tries to do an end-around on the ACA and allow insurance companies to sell these junk insurance plans to more people.

“These plans sometimes look good because the costs are low, but then you find out they cover nothing. These plans don't cover mental health or addiction treatment. They don't cover maternity care. Many of them don't cover the full range of prescription drugs that people need. There was one plan that didn't cover hospitalizations that occurred on Fridays and Saturdays. That's unconscionable, that's not insurance.

“These junk plans are a huge profit center for insurance companies. These junk plans make these big insurers lots of money, because in the fine print, these plans make clear they don't really cover anything.

“As both Chuck and Mark said, the danger is not just to people who get hoodwinked to sign up for plans that don't cover any medical services. It's also a real danger to people who are very sick. People who are very sick who know not to go on these junk plans are left behind in the regulated plans and as more healthy people move to the junk plans, the rates will spike for people with pre-existing conditions that are still on the ACA regulated plans.

“I'm glad that we're going to have a chance to vote on this. I've been listening to my Republican colleagues say for years and years that though they don't love everything about the Affordable Care Act, they want to protect people with pre-existing conditions. Well, here's their chance. They can take a vote, this week, that protects coverage and rates for people with pre-existing conditions and we'll see what they choose.

“Thanks again to Senator Schumer and Senator Warner.”

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