Protecting Healthcare for Millions of Americans
Floor Speech
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Mrs. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representatives Rivas and Randall for leading on this very urgent healthcare issue.
Millions of Americans who depend on the Affordable Care Act are selecting their plans right now, and what they are seeing are healthcare options that they cannot afford due to Republicans' refusal to extend premium assistance.
I am here today speaking on behalf of my constituents in southern Arizona and those throughout the Nation. I am here for the parents that are going through their monthly budget trying to figure out what they can give up just to be able to pay for these premiums. I am speaking for those who have the horrible feeling in the pit of their stomachs because they know the risk of being uninsured, being one hospital visit away from bankruptcy.
My Republican colleagues and, certainly, Donald Trump might not understand this, but health insurance is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
The facts are clear. Republicans paid for their trillion-dollar tax giveaway for the wealthy by cutting healthcare, plain and simple.
Over 10 million people will lose their Medicaid, and now millions more could lose their health coverage because they can't afford their premiums.
Mr. Speaker, 22 million people, including 400,000 Arizonans with marketplace coverage, are already seeing their healthcare premiums skyrocket. These cuts mean the closure of rural hospitals in Arizona, job losses in our healthcare sector, higher healthcare costs for those with private insurance, and the overall stress to an already stretched thin healthcare system.
The State of Arizona has estimated the impact of Medicaid cuts alone to be $34 billion over the next 10 years.
For every $1 billion tax cut there is an estimated loss of 36,000 jobs across multiple industries. While the economic impacts will be devastating throughout the State, the most immediate impact will be on those going without needed healthcare.
Already a community health center in my district is feeling the impact of the healthcare cuts. In 2025, they saw significant cuts in their Ryan White part B funding.
Due to these cuts, some positions had to be eliminated and workflows realigned, including the loss of medical case management and treatment adherence support.
The impacts are real. For instance, a 29-year-old woman was diagnosed with HIV during her pregnancy. She is a mom of two young kids, 7 and 1 years old. She has struggled with mental illness, depression, and cognitive delay. Because she lacks daily adherence support for her lifesaving Valley fever medication, she has been hospitalized three times due to sepsis related to the condition.
Another 18-year-old with HIV who works as a landscaper has not been able to get back on his medication due to the loss of insurance. His employer does not provide insurance, and he makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Now the health center team is trying to get support from pharmaceutical companies for this individual.
These are the types of stories of real people that simply want to live their lives. Illness and disease do not discriminate, neither should Congress. Americans have had enough of cutting programs that Americans need for basic survival, enough of the attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, enough Republicans' skyrocketing costs.
It is up to Donald Trump and the Republican Party to decide if they will join Democrats to restore these tax credits or whether they will keep making life unaffordable for hardworking Americans. I urge the Senate to act immediately and take up the premium extension bill passed by the House.
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