Blumenthal Slams Devastating Health Care Cuts Ahead of Republican Shutdown

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today spoke on the Senate Floor to demand Republicans join Democrats in taking action to prevent the looming health care crisis by extending the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits that have made health care more affordable for tens of millions of Americans, including thousands of Connecticut residents.

“And our Republican colleagues…say there’s no hurry. Well, Americans can't get sick on Donald Trump's timetable. When people are told there's ‘no hurry’ if you get sick for medical care, that sounds cruel because it is cruel – and it's stupid,” Blumenthal said on the Senate Floor.

“So, I’m here to advocate for the 139,000 Connecticut residents who depend on these credits and the 24 million Americans who are making decisions about health care insurance coverage right now, at their kitchen tables, in their living rooms, in their home. It should not be a partisan issue.”

“At the end of the day, it's a choice. Do we choose a highly successful solution that has reduced health care costs for the whole nation, or do we allow the clock to run out and raise health care costs for families in every state in this country?”

Ahead of the deadline to fund the government, Democrats proposed a plan to avoid a government shutdown and the looming Republican health care crisis by reversing Republicans’ catastrophic cuts to critical health care programs, including extending the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits. Since blocking the plan, the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans have refused to negotiate in good faith with Democrats to address this crisis and propose an acceptable plan to avoid a shutdown.

Blumenthal is a cosponsor of the Health Care Affordability Act, bicameral legislation to permanently extend the tax credits for Marketplace coverage.

Earlier today, Blumenthal joined a public forum entitled “The Clock is Ticking: Why Congress Must Extend the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits,” where he emphasized the impact Republicans’ refusal to preserve and extend enhanced premium tax credits will have on people’s ability to access affordable health care. A video of Blumenthal’s remarks can be found here.

The full text of Blumenthal remarks on the Senator Floor is copied below. Video of Blumenthal’s speech is available here.

Thank you, Mr. President. My thoughts tonight are with the millions of Americans who will bear the brunt of this shutdown. The families in the path of hurricanes who will go without the services of FEMA, the veterans who will lack many of the helping hands in the VA, the recipients of Social Security who will be unable to verify their cards or perhaps receive payments that they've been denied, and others, millions of others of Americans who unnecessarily will be hurt. Perhaps people who depend on the social safety net that we have established and may be torn by this shutdown.

And I’m thinking about the millions of Americans – about 24 million in total, 139,000 in Connecticut alone – who will be notified that they can buy health insurance as a result of open enrollment. But what they lack in information is whether or not that health insurance will be affordable because they have no way of knowing whether it will extend beyond the end of the year, those subsidies that are so essential to their affording health care.

And our Republican colleagues, we just heard the senator from Kansas say there's no hurry. Well, Americans can't get sick on Donald Trump's timetable. When people are told there's “no hurry” if you get sick for medical care, that sounds cruel because it is cruel – and it's stupid. People who go without health insurance may lack the health care that can save costs of preventing more serious illness, and those costs eventually are borne by all of us.

So, this misguided denial of the certainty people need that health care insurance subsidies will be extended beyond the end of the year really affects all of us. Premiums are rising already for all of us by 18 percent this year alone, because the healthiest people are deciding they're not going to buy health insurance, and insurance companies are predicting they will have to increase their costs to cover the sicker people who will buy health insurance because they need it.

But the simple fact is nobody is invincible. All of us need health care, and the Affordable Care Act recognizes that health care in America aspirationally should be a human right. And our failure to provide it to those millions of Americans who will find health insurance unaffordable is unacceptable, and that’s why we are taking this stand, and why America can't wait for Donald Trump to tell them that they are sick enough now to be given this subsidy which they deserve.

I'm here to urge my Republican colleagues to stop rolling over for Donald Trump. Their constituents, as well as ours, are affected by this delay in providing affordable health insurance. For months, we have been calling attention to the need to act now. And this shutdown was avoidable; the path to stopping it was available; and shortening it, assuming it will occur, is still a possibility. If we come together, if Republicans are willing to negotiate, if they come back to town. House Republicans are out of town. They are out of touch with reality. And the way forward is simply bipartisan negotiations, coming together, reaching a solution as is the way shutdowns have been avoided in the past.

The fact is that Donald Trump's so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” – actually a Big Blatant Betrayal – along with inaction and avoidance by Republicans are already wreaking havoc on Americans. In Connecticut, health insurance rates for 2026 have increased by nearly 18 percent, the largest increase in the last six years. Without the subsidies, consumers with ACA coverage will see premium increases in the range of 75 percent.

I have visited with hospitals, community health centers, physicians, and many more who have raised their deep concerns about the impending cuts in Medicaid. The budget bill Republicans passed in July is threatening also Medicaid coverage for 158,000 Connecticut residents. And anyone lucky enough to keep their coverage will see reduced benefits as the state struggles to make up the differences in lost federal revenue. Americans and our health care system simply can't afford to be nickeled and dimed like Republicans are forcing them to do.

The ACA premium tax credits have protected millions of Americans from higher health care costs. They've reduced the number without health care insurance. They've provided robust choices for consumers and provided stability for health care providers, particularly in rural areas – and there are rural areas affected in Connecticut. And in addition to the impending cuts in Medicaid, Republicans are refusing to extend these subsidies. It is cruel, it is unnecessary, it is dumb.

So, I’m here to advocate for the 139,000 Connecticut residents who depend on these credits and the 24 million Americans who are making decisions about health care insurance coverage right now, at their kitchen tables, in their living rooms, in their home. It should not be a partisan issue.

At the end of the day, it's a choice. Do we choose a highly successful solution that has reduced health care costs for the whole nation, or do we allow the clock to run out and raise health care costs for families in every state in this country?

That choice can still be made in the next 24 hours, in the next two days, to shorten and lessen the pain that will be felt by Americans. I choose to stand with working families. I will fight, and we are unified in our fight, as a matter of conscience and conviction. We will not be bullied. Donald Trump should know that we will stand strong for working families in America. They deserve health care.

It is about saving health care and holding Donald Trump accountable to follow the law. When there is a budget, when it's passed by Congress and signed by the President, he cannot be allowed to simply ride roughshod over it and disregard it. It is the rule of law, and healthcare that's at stake here. And I will fight for them.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield.

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