Health Care
House Democrats are committed to expanding access to quality, affordable health care coverage, strengthening protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and lowering prescription drug prices and the cost of health care overall.
Under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the uninsured rate is at an all-time low. While Republicans vote against legislation to lower health care costs, House Democrats are working to bring down the overall costs of health care and increase access to health care coverage.
With the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, House Democrats took direct action to reduce health care costs for millions of Americans. For the first time, Medicare will be able to negotiate prescription drug prices for high-cost drugs. The law also caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients at $2,000 annually and establishes a $35 cap for a month’s supply of insulin. The Inflation Reduction Act also protects progress made under President Biden to expand access to quality, affordable health care coverage by continuing the expanded premium tax credits originally passed in the American Rescue Plan, which lowered health care premiums for millions of working families.
This built upon the Affordable Care Act – enacted by President Obama and Congressional Democrats in 2010 – that has put American families in control of their own health care and ended a system that put profits ahead of patients. Since its enactment, 35 million Americans have gained access to quality, affordable health coverage. Americans with pre-existing conditions can no longer be discriminated against by insurance companies. Parents can now keep their children on their insurance plans up to age twenty-six. Insurance companies are no longer allowed to put annual or lifetime limits on coverage or drop people when they get sick. Additionally, thanks to the law, Medicare costs – from premiums and deductibles to overall program spending – have slowed to well below the levels projected before the law passed.
These reforms were crucial, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic struck but more action was needed. That’s why House Democrats worked to enact legislation right away - without any Republican support - to ensure that testing, treatment, and vaccinations for COVID-19 would be covered with no out-of-pocket costs to Americans.
House Democrats remain committed to the goal of affordable, accessible health care for all.
Senate Republicans are making a last-ditch attempt to ram their latest TrumpCare bill through the Senate, holding only a single hearing on a bill released hours before and without a full Congressional Budget Office score.
Senate Republicans continue to insist on bringing their dangerous Graham-Cassidy TrumpCare bill up for a vote this week even without having given the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) sufficient time to analyze its full impact on our health insurance markets, on losses in coverage, or how much health care costs would increase for consumers.
With Senator Collins's announcement that she will oppose the latest TrumpCare bill, Republicans ought to withdraw it from consideration.
Wanted to make sure you saw the below from S&P Global Ratings about their report on the harmful economic impact of the Graham-Cassidy bill.
Last night, the Trump Administration issued their third attempt at a travel ban, and this one is no better than the previous iterations.
Every time Republicans make changes to their TrumpCare bill, it seems to go from bad to worse. In spite of any changes being made, the Graham-Cassidy TrumpCare bill would still kick tens of millions of Americans off their coverage, make those with pre-existing conditions uninsurable, impose an age tax on older Americans, and cause premiums to skyrocket.
As Senate Republican leaders attempt to jam their latest TrumpCare bill through the Senate, they should probably check in with their Conference.
I am outraged by reports that the Department of Health and Human Services plans to shut down their website for 12 hours every Sunday, except for one, over the course of the six-week open enrollment period.
Yet another poll is out today showing that Americans overwhelmingly oppose TrumpCare.
With Senator McCain’s announcement that he opposes the Graham-Cassidy repeal bill, Leader McConnell ought to abandon this last ditch effort to jam TrumpCare through the Senate.