Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Health and Human Services Relating to ``State Relief and Empowerment Waivers''

Floor Speech

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Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, first, I thank my colleague, the distinguished Senator from Washington, for her leadership on the issue of providing healthcare to all Americans. In a democracy where everyone counts, everyone should have access to high quality, affordable care.

I rise today to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to undermine our health insurance system and scam healthcare consumers by allowing harmful health plans to be sold to unsuspecting, vulnerable Americans.

Since the President's first day in office, his administration has taken measure after measure that makes it harder for patients to access necessary care, weakens our healthcare system, and increases costs.

This latest effort to expand access to what are appropriately referred to as ``junk'' health insurance plans would allow insurance companies to discriminate against Americans who experience preexisting conditions and would also leave patients with higher healthcare costs and worse insurance coverage.

Junk plans don't cover even basic benefits, such as prescription drugs, substance use disorder treatment, or maternity care. People often don't realize how inadequate these plans are until they are in the middle of a medical crisis.

Unless you can guarantee that you will never get sick, never break a limb, or never get into an accident, these plans are a bad deal for you. We all know that life doesn't come with those guarantees, and when the worse does happen, when illness or injury strikes, these plans are, more often than not, barely worth the paper they are written on.

This can lead to two very bad outcomes. The first is that the patient chooses to receive the critical care they need, but, because the short- term junk plan doesn't cover the care, the patient ends up being stuck with an incredibly high out-of-pocket medical bill, or the patient, upon learning that the junk plan doesn't cover critical care, chooses not to get the care they need, which leads to adverse outcomes or an unplanned trip to the emergency room, the cost of which may be footed by the taxpayer.

If you are someone with a preexisting condition, such as asthma, diabetes, or cancer, you could be charged more, sometimes truly astronomical amounts, for insurance that will not even cover many of your most basic benefits or you can be denied certain benefits altogether.

If that sounds familiar, it is because it is the same situation people with preexisting conditions were in before the passage of the Affordable Care Act. That is why I am calling on all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote to repeal the Trump administration's rule that authorizes these junk plans, threatening protections for millions of Americans with preexisting conditions and increasing healthcare costs all across the board.

If there is one thing that Republicans and Democrats should all agree on, it is that we must ensure that people with preexisting conditions are protected and that they can be covered--people like Bernadette Clark of Manchester, whose youngest son is living with cerebral palsy, a complex medical condition, and would not have access to the type of health insurance that she and her family need if not for the protections that the Affordable Care Act afforded to people with preexisting conditions.

Doctors, nurses, hospitals, and patients universally oppose these junk plans because they know how dangerous these plans are for the health and well-being of our people.

I urge every Senator to stand with Granite Staters and all Americans in opposing the Trump administration's latest attack on our healthcare system.

Thank you.

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