Senator Chris Murphy Delivers Weekly Democratic Address

WASHINGTON, March 3 -- The office of Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., issued the following news release:

With President Trump's administration and the Republicans threatening to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while keeping their plan for replacement hidden from the rest of Congress and the American people, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) delivers the Weekly Democratic Address. In this week's address, Murphy emphasized how the Republican's secret plan would benefit the CEO's of health insurance companies that met with President Trump in the Oval Office but would leave millions of American's without healthcare and drive everyone's insurance costs up.

The Weekly Democratic Address is available in both AUDIO AND VIDEO FORMAT (https://youtu.be/q89G2WouaKA). You may download the audio of the address HERE and the video of the address HERE (https://s3.amazonaws.com/sdmc-media.senate.gov/SDMC/030317_Dem_Weekly_Murphy_1080_FINAL.mp4).

A full transcript of the address follows:

"I'm Chris Murphy, Senator from Connecticut

"It was quite a scene Thursday morning in the basement of the U.S. Capitol. My friend Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky led a pack of reporters in and out of every corner of the cavernous cellar on a hunt for the secret room where Congressional Republicans' were allegedly keeping their new bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

"Why this spectacle?

"Because Republicans are keeping their proposal secret - even from their own Members and staff.

"This is a bill that would yank insurance away from up to 30 million people and remake 1/6 of the American economy. It would hike rates up for sick people and seniors. It would tax employer health plans, driving everyone's insurance costs up.

"So maybe it's no surprise that Republicans are hiding this bill. I mean, think about it this way - politicians love praise and cameras. If Washington Republicans thought their plan would get praise, they'd let in the cameras.

"Since I was first elected, I wake up every day wanting to make it easier and cheaper for the people I represent back home see the doctor of their choice and pay for their medicine.

"Ultimately, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act will hurt millions of real people in very real ways. This isn't a game. This isn't about politics. This is about real people.

"People like my constituent, Jon. A true American inspiration.

"Jon lives in Meriden, Connecticut. He was born with cystic fibrosis, and he tells the story about how health care is the most important thing to him in the world. It's more important than his job, it's more important than friends. He struggles every day to live, and the only way he survives is by taking expensive medications that allow him to continue to breathe, that allow his lungs to continue to function amid this crippling disease.

"Jon tells it like it is. Without the Affordable Care Act that allows him to get affordable health care, he would die. As Jon sees it, probably within months its repeal.

"Jon's story is not unique. Millions of Americans will either go without health care or go bankrupt if the Affordable Care Act is taken away.

"Republicans like to tell this story about how the Affordable Care Act is unraveling. It's a fiction that they created. Sure, we can always improve it, but 20 million Americans have health care today that wouldn't with the Affordable Care Act, and surveys show upwards of 85% of them are satisfied with their care under the ACA. No one goes bankrupt anymore because of health care costs. And seniors are paying less for drugs under Medicare than before the bill was passed.

"The Affordable Care Act is working today -- for Jon and millions more. But every day the Republicans push their repeal plan, they undermine it. Even worse, President Trump issued one of his infamous executive orders, demanding that his agencies start to pull apart the Affordable Care Act's protections immediately, even before a repeal bill is passed. Republicans are trying to destroy the health care reform law so that they never even have to pass a repeal bill.

"But whether Republicans repeal the law or destroy it, it's all bad news for patients. Without the Affordable Care Act, Americans with preexisting health conditions, like diabetes or mental illness, would either get denied insurance or have to pay a crazy amount of money. Insurance companies could reinstate lifetime and annual caps on your benefits, meaning they could cut you off just when you really need it. Women would pay more for insurance than men - just because they're women. And seniors would pay thousands more a year for prescription drugs.

"This might all be good news for the health insurance companies, and that's what they probably told President Trump when they huddled with in the Oval Office. But if the President was meeting with patients, instead of insurance industry CEOs, they would tell him to work with Republicans and Democrats - both parties - to keep what works in the Affordable Care Act, and fix the parts that could use improvement.

"Sure, Republicans control everything in Washington now. The White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate. But they can choose to reach out to Democrats, and we can work together to make the law better, reduce costs, and increase choice. We can do that together. It's not too late.

"Because health care shouldn't be about politics. It shouldn't be about blindly trying to fulfill a campaign promise, no matter how many real people get hurt.

"I might never find that secret room where the health care bill is, but Republicans know where to find me, if they want to stop playing politics, and start working together."

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