Nineteen Percent: Washington State Republicans to Blame for Proposed Premium Hikes

WASHINGTON, June 5 -- The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued the following news release:

Insurers in Washington State are proposing premium hikes on Washington families averaging 19 percent and they are making it crystal clear who is to blame: President Trump and Congressional Republicans like Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

Republicans have relentlessly attacked affordable health care for years and it has had a direct impact on the cost of premiums. The GOP Tax Scam removed a key pillar of the Affordable Care Act without any type of replacement - a move that at the time the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and experts made clear would lead to higher premiums and fewer Americans having health insurance. Now, that's exactly what is happening.

"Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Cathy McMorris Rodgers recklessly gutted the Affordable Care Act in order to give a huge tax handout to large corporations, and now hundreds of thousands of working families in Washington State are going to pay the price," said DCCC Spokeswoman Drew Godinich. "This is a moral and political catastrophe, and with these painful premium increases being finalized this fall, there is no question that voters will punish House Republicans for this all-out assault on their personal financial security."