Chairman Aguilar: Unless Congress acts, 15 million Americans will lose health care, and 24 million Americans who rely on the ACA could see their health insurance go up by 75 percent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and Vice Chair Ted Lieu held a press conference to discuss the dual health care and affordability crises Republicans have created and the immediate need to protect Americans’ health care. You can watch the full press conference here and read the transcript below.
CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: Pleased to be joined by Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu today, as always. Before I begin, I wanted to acknowledge the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. There is no place for political violence in the United States. Also, I want to recognize the shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado last week. Our heart goes out to those students impacted by this gun violence. There will be more to say about both of these tragedies, but I want to shift now to what we're here to discuss today.
Democrats have been clear about where we stand on government funding from the beginning — we are ready to negotiate a bipartisan spending deal that protects Americans' health care. But we will not be complicit in passing any legislation that takes away health care from the American people. One of Democrats' top priorities has long been to ensure every single American has access to high-quality and affordable health care. That remains truer more than ever. At a time when Americans are facing a dual health care and affordability crisis, it is our responsibility as Members of Congress to put our differences aside and to come together to bring down costs. This shouldn't be controversial. We have been hearing about the high costs, rising unemployment and recession fears impacting Americans in every district. We cannot allow health care to be another thing that's out of reach.
We have a chance to come together and to tackle these crises head-on and to undo some of the damage within Republicans’ Big Ugly Law. Unless Congress acts, 15 million Americans will lose health care, and 24 million Americans who rely on the ACA could see their health insurance go up by 75 percent. In my district alone, nearly 400,000 people depend on Medicaid or receive a premium subsidy. Democrats are doing everything in our power to ensure the worst parts of the Big Ugly Law don't become a reality for our constituents. That's why we'll continue to hold fast to our position and implore Republicans to abandon their go it alone approach. I’ll introduce Vice Chair Ted Lieu.
VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. The murder of Charlie Kirk was horrific, despicable and unacceptable. Last week's killing of Mr. Kirk was also part of a broader trend of political violence in our country. Last month, Minnesota Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed in a politically motivated attack, and state Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot and wounded. In April, the Pennsylvania Governor's Mansion was set on fire in an attempted assassination while Governor Josh Shapiro and his family were celebrating Passover. A few years ago, a plot was uncovered to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer. We've also seen horrific political violence targeted toward President Trump, Speaker Pelosi and her husband, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Gabby Giffords and several other political leaders and judges in the last decade. While political disagreements are part of democracy, they are never, ever acceptable pretext for harming others. Political violence is never acceptable.
In our Caucus today, there was a lot of discussion about health care. And under the Republican policies and Trump's policies, health care costs are rising. Under the Big Ugly Law, we've got half a trillion dollars set to be cut in Medicare, millions of people will be thrown off Medicaid and ACA premiums are set to rise. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, for example, if you are a couple, 60 years old and you make over $85,000 a year, your premiums will rise over $1,500 a month. That's over $18,000 annually. In addition, people who are on employer-based health coverage, their premiums are also going to rise. Because, guess what? When you don't cover people, they still get sick, they still go to the emergency room and they still get treated, and then those costs get passed to people who have health insurance coverage. So we're asking Republicans and Donald Trump to reverse their policies that are increasing people's health care costs.
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