Now, on another matter--healthcare--yesterday, 50 of my Republican colleagues voted against ensuring protections for people with preexisting conditions--people with asthma and cancer, people with diabetes and all kinds of gynecological problems. Republican Senators sided with the Trump administration to expand the ability of insurance companies to sell cutrate, junk insurance to Americans--to dupe Americans. These plans will destabilize the healthcare market and raise the cost of insurance for people with preexisting conditions who may end up being priced out of insurance altogether.
Let me say that again.
Our constituents--
What did they do it in the name of? Freedom. Freedom. This is like the 1890s. Who is going to have freedom? The insurance companies, the big shots. Who is going to have no freedom from illness and disease? Average folks. It is terrible thinking, once again siding with big, powerful special interests, not the average person.
The only people who want these junk insurance plans are two groups-- the insurance companies and the rightwing ideologues who believe the government shouldn't be in healthcare at all. They want to cut Medicare. They want to cut Medicaid. They want to cut
So let us remember that the junk insurance plans are hardly worth the paper they are printed on. They lure consumers in with low premiums, but the deductibles are so high, the copays are so high, and the coverage so skimpy that the plans hardly offer any benefit to the consumer at all.
While every Republican save one voted to hand the keys to the insurance companies, every single Democrat--every single Democrat-- stood up to the sabotage from the Trump administration and voted to not allow the expansion of junk insurance across America.
I warn my colleagues that these are the kinds of issues that voters remember come election time. Healthcare is the No. 1 issue in America to the broad majority of voters. The American people will head to the polls in November and ask themselves: Which party will defend the people's right to quality healthcare? Which party will not?
The answer to that question could not be clearer.
They have tried to repeal the healthcare law. They have tried to gut Medicaid, eliminate healthcare for millions of Americans, and put the insurers back in charge. They have eliminated the program to help low- and middle-income Americans afford insurance and, worst of all, Republican attorneys general--including two running for the
These actions are undergirded by a belief on the other side of the aisle that the American people just don't deserve help affording adequate healthcare.
As a result of the Republican healthcare agenda, premiums are up by double digits in several States and quality is down. As a result of the Republican healthcare agenda, Americans are paying more and getting less.
I say to the American people that in a few short weeks you will have a choice. You can vote for 2 more years of healthcare sabotage from a
I yield the floor.
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