Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I want to thank the Senator from Virginia for bringing forward this CRA that we will be voting on that will allow us to affirmatively from the Senate say: We want to protect people with preexisting conditions and people from these junk plans that really take away the protections that are so important and that every family counts on. So I really appreciate that from the Senator.

When it comes to healthcare, families across our country have repeatedly seen President Trump and Republicans say one thing and do the exact opposite. Despite proclaiming themselves somewhere along the line as the ``party of healthcare,'' despite making empty promises to fight for families and people with preexisting conditions, the cornerstone of Republicans' healthcare policy has been to attack the care families really rely on with their massively harmful TrumpCare proposals--the junk plans that you just heard about--and waivers that chip away at patient protections, and, of course, that partisan lawsuit which the court could rule on any day.

Let's make it clear. If Republicans get their way in court, they are going to throw the lives of patients across the country into chaos and uncertainty by striking down those protections for preexisting conditions by stripping away health insurance from tens of millions of people covered through Medicaid expansion or the exchanges.

It will get rid of the lifetime and annual caps that are on patients' out-of-pocket costs, while bringing back caps on their benefits, even for those who are insured through their own employers--so this applies to everyone--and ending essential health benefits that require insurers to cover things like prescription drugs or maternity care, mental healthcare, emergency care, and a lot more.

While Republicans have been advancing their attacks on families' healthcare, they have also been blocking commonsense solutions that Democrats are out here pushing for--like legislation to bring down drug prices through impactful steps like Medicare negotiation or making coverage more affordable for our working families and protecting patients with preexisting conditions from the Republicans' reckless lawsuit.

Now, Democrats in the House have also passed legislation to restore funding that President Trump cut, to help people find the right care for themselves, to reverse President Trump's harmful junk insurance rule, and to actually defend patients from that partisan lawsuit that Republicans are pushing to upend healthcare as we know it.

Now, what have Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans done with those solutions that have come over here from the House? Well, they have buried each and every one of them in a legislative graveyard, while brazenly and inaccurately claiming they care about fighting for patients or protecting preexisting conditions.

I am here to say today that Republicans' transparent healthcare charade is coming to an end. Soon, as you heard, Democrats will force a vote on legislation that Senator McConnell cannot bury in their legislative graveyard, meaning every Senator here is going to have to go on the record as to where they really stand on healthcare--whether they stand with families or with President Trump and his schemes that take power away from patients and give it back to the insurance companies.

Our legislation will reverse a step that President Trump took to warp a tool meant to encourage innovation into one that encourages States to eliminate protections for patients with preexisting conditions, increases costs, and promotes those harmful junk insurance plans that can charge vulnerable patients more and cover less.

President Trump's junk plans can flout protections for preexisting conditions, meaning that they can discriminate against patients-- patients like Lily. She is a high school student from Gig Harbor, WA, and has cystic fibrosis; or Julie, who is a four-time cancer survivor from Mercer Island; or Javi, who is a college student in Seattle with mental health needs; and millions of other patients across the country with preexisting conditions.

Letting President Trump expand the use of these junk plans will leave patients with higher premiums, higher out-of-pocket costs, and fewer affordable options to get the healthcare that they need, and President Trump's rule could even be used to cut financial help for patients who need it the most and take benefits away from the sickest patients, even if they don't buy that junk insurance.

This is absolutely unacceptable and exactly why the vote Democrats are going to be forcing is so important. These patients across the country and in my State deserve to know that we have their backs, that we are fighting against President Trump's efforts to undermine their healthcare, not cheering him on and blocking efforts to stop them.

Democrats are going to be out here a lot to talk about this because we know families in the country care about this a lot. We are going to be putting pressure on Republicans to do the right thing--the thing patients and families sent them here to do. If they don't, if they continue their relentless attacks on family healthcare, if Republicans continue to side with President Trump and his efforts to take protections away from patients and give that power back to the insurance companies, we are not going to give up. Democrats are not going to let up. We will double down. We are going to make sure that families know which party is offering solutions to protect their care and which one is blocking them, which party is trying to repair the damage President Trump has caused and which party is trying to cause even more harm, which party is fighting for their healthcare and which one is fighting against it. We are going to be out here day after day to keep pushing Republicans to do the right thing, to stand up for patients and families even if it means standing against President Trump.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source