[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 166 (Monday, October 16, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6383-S6384]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, on the issue of healthcare, last 
week, President Trump committed two

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acts of pointless sabotage of our Nation's healthcare system. He signed 
an Executive order that would give insurers more latitude to sell 
temporary, junk plans that are not only incredibly risky to the 
consumer but undermine the rest of the healthcare market by drawing 
healthy Americans out of the pool. Even worse, President Trump decided 
to stop the cost-sharing program, which reduces premiums, deductibles, 
and copays for 7 million Americans a year. There is literally no upside 
to the President's decision to end the cost-sharing program.
  Because of the President's actions, premiums will go up between 20 
and 25 percent, according to the CBO. Just today in Pennsylvania, we 
saw premiums rise by 30 percent as a direct result of the President's 
actions. Deductibles and out-of-pocket costs will go up by thousands of 
dollars. Deficits will rise by $194 billion because the government will 
have to pay more in subsidies to make up for the lack of the cost-
sharing program, and the marketplaces will become less stable because 
more people will go uninsured.
  The Republican Governor of Nevada, Brian Sandoval, may have said it 
best:

       It's going to hurt people. It's going to hurt kids. It's 
     going to hurt families. It's going to hurt individuals. It's 
     going to hurt people with mental health issues. It's going to 
     hurt veterans. It's going to hurt everybody.

  That is from Republican Governor Brian Sandoval.
  Another point that the President should hear is that nearly 70 
percent of the Americans who benefit from these cost-sharing payments 
live in States that Donald Trump won in the election.
  Make no mistake about it--the President is deliberately undermining 
our healthcare system with these two actions. When premiums go up 
because of this action, the blame will fall on his shoulders.
  There is a way out. The way out of all of this is for Congress to 
aggressively pursue a bipartisan healthcare bill that will take cost-
sharing out of the President's hands by locking in the payments. For 
many months, Democrats have been pushing to stabilize the markets and 
to work toward a bipartisan agreement that would keep premiums down for 
millions of Americans. Senators Alexander and Murray have been 
negotiating a package that would include cost-sharing as well as some 
provisions that the Republicans want. These negotiations began long 
before the President's decision to end cost-sharing last week. I am 
encouraged by the progress of the negotiations, and I am hopeful that 
we are nearing an agreement that makes clear that we have no intention 
of supporting the President's reckless efforts at sabotage.
  If President Trump is now supportive of an agreement that stabilizes 
and improves the existing system under the Affordable Care Act, we 
certainly welcome the change of heart. We have been asking for this for 
a long time. We hope that our colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle, in their realizing the damage the President has done, will join 
us in strengthening, not in sabotaging, the healthcare system.