Video: At Senate Hearing Seeking to Undermine ACA, Blumenthal Calls out Republicans for Refusing to Address Higher Health Care Costs

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today at a hearing convened by Senate Republicans seeking to undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA), U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, slammed Republicans for refusing to extend enhanced premium tax credits and working to dismantle key protections for Americans in the ACA.

At today’s hearing, Blumenthal invited testimony from Dan Jacobs, a chef and restaurant owner from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Aaron Lehman, a fifth-generation family farmer from Polk County, Iowa, who both discussed how Republicans’ failure to extend enhanced premium tax credits will impact their families, businesses, and communities.

“Anybody consuming health care knows how expensive it is. But more important than what I say here is what the reality is for American families right now—in their small businesses, like Dan Jacobs; at their farms, like Aaron Lehman; at their kitchen table, in their living rooms. Where they are going to buy health care right now, health care coverage, and they are confronting double and triple rates, and they are climbing,” Blumenthal said at the hearing.

Blumenthal continued, “It is sticker shock that is deadly. People will die. People will die if they can’t afford health insurance. So, far more important than what I say here is what the United States Senate does tomorrow. The question is whether it will extend the health care tax credits that have made insurance affordable for millions and millions of Americans—including small businesses, farmers, and others. Across the country more than 20 million Americans are facing an average premium increase of 114%—that’s doubling—as a result of the loss of these subsidies.”

Blumenthal underscored the urgency for the Senate to act now and extend premium tax credits before individuals across the country are hit with higher costs, “We don’t have the luxury of time. We don’t have the leisure to delay. And I believe that we should recognize how the Affordable Care Act serves our small businesses, our farmers, our individual people, millions of them who will go without health insurance if we decide wrongly tomorrow.”

The video of Blumenthal opening remarks is available here. The transcript is copied below.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If today's hearing sounds familiar or repetitive, that is because it is. It is repetitive of the last hearing we held, and the Chairman’s opening statement repeats a lot of what has been the Republican mantra—I was inclined to say diatribe—but essentially, to repeal the ACA. It has been the Republican mission since the passage of the ACA, and we have voted on it some 70 or more times. Fortunately, every time defeating the repeal effort. And I want to make very clear, our health care system costs too much. It has problems like fraud. It is far from perfect. So, the Chairman saying that I implied that there are no problems with our health care system I think somewhat misstates what I've said in the past. Anybody consuming health care knows how expensive it is.

But more important than what I say here is what the reality is for American families right now—in their small businesses, like Dan Jacobs; at their farms, like Aaron Lehman; at their kitchen table, in their living rooms. Where they are going to buy health care right now, health care coverage, and they are confronting double and triple rates, and they are climbing. It is sticker shock that is deadly. People will die. People will die if they can’t afford health insurance.

So far more important than what I say here is what the United States Senate does tomorrow. The question is whether it will extend the health care tax credits that have made insurance affordable for millions and millions of Americans—including small businesses, farmers, and others.

Across the country more than 20 million Americans are facing an average premium increase of 114%—that’s doubling—as a result of the loss of these subsidies. In both my home state of Connecticut and the Chairman’s state of Wisconsin where Mr. Dan Jacobs is from, a family of four earning $66,000 per year and hoping to hang onto some benchmark plan they have right now will see their premiums more than triple. That’s just one example. I could go through a variety of others. I have done it before in hearings that we have had here and speeches that we have made on the Floor. But tomorrow is decision day. And we can talk all we want about defining the problem and concocting solutions, and I agree we ought to look at reforms to make the Affordable Care Act better and cut the costs of health care and insurance, but let's extend the health care subsidies so we can save millions of Americans the awful fate of going without health care insurance.

We don’t have the luxury of time. We don’t have the leisure to delay. And I believe that we should recognize how the Affordable Care Act serves our small businesses, our farmers, our individual people, millions of them who will go without health insurance if we decide wrongly tomorrow.

I am particularly thankful to Dan Jacobs, chef and small business owner from Wisconsin, and Aaron Lehman, a farmer from Iowa, who have agreed to testify today to share their stories. They are just two of the millions of Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act and whose healthcare insurance premiums are about to skyrocket or have already sent sticker shock throughout the American public.

There is no question that we need to crack down on the brokers engaging in fraudulent behavior and take action to constrain health care costs, but let's resolve to come together, to do the right thing for the American people, and extend these health care subsidies. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

-30-