WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Wednesday decried the Trump administration for continuing to sabotage the American health care system. Murphy emphasized that that the Trump administration’s efforts are forcing people across the country to pay more, all while insurance companies and drug companies are receiving massive tax breaks. Families in states like Maryland may see as high as a 90% increase in their health insurance premiums.  

“We were successful in defeating the full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. And that’s great news because the Affordable Care Act is more popular than ever before. But this Congress and this president are trying to ruin some of the most important protections in our health care system because they’re mad that they lost the repeal vote by one vote. … And so it’s important for us to tell Americans what the consequences of that sabotage campaign are. It certainly means that sick people are going to get less protection, but it also means that over the course of the next few months, as rates are filed across the country, you are going to see some devastatingly high premium increases due to the Republican campaign of health care sabotage,” said Murphy.

Murphy continued, “This is what happens when you strike blows at the American health care system, and it’s important for Americans to understand what’s happening.” 

Excerpts from Murphy’s speech are available below:

“This campaign of sabotage started in January and is extended until today and we are now starting to see the result, of that campaign of sabotage. It started on inauguration day when President Trump signed an executive order ordering all of his agencies to dismantle the affordable care act. It finds its way to the senate floor when Republicans spend most of 2017 trying to pass legislation that would take insurance away from 23 million people, according to C.B.O. The president undertook a number of steps to try to weaken the exchanges where millions of people get their health care. He cut open enrollment period in half. He stopped funding advertising. He pulled funding for the navigators, the people would go out and try to help people sort through their health care options. There’s no reason to do that -- to try to stop people from being able to sign up for health care -- unless your intention is sabotage. There’s no public policy reason to give people less time to sign up or to give them less information about their options. And most recently, the Republicans finally succeeded in repealing the individual mandate, which the Congressional Budget Office says will by itself increase premiums by 10% and wipe out insurance for 13 million people. And the administration is now trying to expand the sale of what we call ‘junk plans,’ which are insurance plans that don’t have to cover a minimum set of benefits, that don’t have to protect people with preexisting conditions or existing sicknesses from higher premium rates.

[…]

“I came down to the floor I think two weeks ago now to talk about the first two rate filings of the rate filing season. These were in Maryland and Virginia. The rate filings were, quite frankly, catastrophic. While these were the worst of the bunch, all of the rate filings were much higher than the rate of medical inflation. The worst requested increase was one insurance plan in Maryland, asked for a 91% increase in premiums. One insurance plan in Virginia asked for a 64% increase in premiums. In Maryland the head of the insurance plan that asked for the 91% increase said that the reason for it was the continuing actions on the part of the administration to systematically undermine the market and make it almost impossible to carry out our mission. No one can afford a 91% increase in premiums. No one can afford a 64% increase in premiums. But, frankly, no one can -- very few people can afford a 15% or 20% increase in premiums. And this -- premiums. And this week we got the rate filings from the state of Oregon. And in Oregon, Providence Health Plan with about 90,000 customers, which is one of the bigger plans in the state, is asking for a 14% premium increase. Now, that's not 91% or 64%, but there are a lot of families who simply aren't going to be able to afford a double-digit premium increase.

[…]

“So, Senate Democrats are going to be down on the floor pretty relentlessly over the course of the next few months to make people understand that as you are getting your health insurance bills, as you are seeing these big increases, a big reason why are the actions that your elected leaders have taken, this Republican congress and this administration. But the rate increases might be getting even bigger than they already are today. […] Mr. President, I just think it’s really important we talk about this. As I walked across the state of Connecticut last summer -- something that I’ve come to do the last few years. I take about five or six days and I walk from one side of the state to the other, something that the presiding officer and others probably can’t do in states that are a little bit longer across than 110 miles -- Health care was the dominant theme. People were waiting for me miles ahead on the road having seen news that I was in a certain town earlier in the day. They waited ahead of me for hours and hours to talk to me about their illness and about their fear that this congress and this president were going to take away their coverage. We were successful in defeating the full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. And that’s great news because the Affordable Care Act is more popular than ever before. But this Congress and this president are trying to ruin some of the most important protections in our health care system because they’re mad that they lost the repeal vote by one vote.

[…]

“And so it’s important for us to tell Americans what the consequences of that sabotage campaign are. It certainly means that sick people are going to get less protection, but it also means that over the course of the next few months, as rates are filed across the country, you are going to see some devastatingly high premium increases due to the Republican campaign of health care sabotage. This week, 14% in Oregon. Last week or the week before, 91% in Maryland. 64% in Virginia. This is what happens when you strike blows at the American health care system, and it’s important for Americans to understand what’s happening.”

###