Senators Shaheen, Hassan Speak Together on Senate Floor Highlighting Stories of Granite Staters Who Would be Hurt by Trumpcare

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WASHINGTON - Today, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan went to the Senate floor together to highlight a few of the stories they heard at an emergency Trumpcare field hearing they held last Friday in Concord. The Senators also emphasized that even though Republican leadership has delayed a vote on Trumpcare this week, the fundamentals of what is wrong with Trumpcare will not change.

"The Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and radically cut Medicaid is a clear and present danger to the State of New Hampshire and to every other State," said Senator Shaheen. "I am grateful to the Granite Staters who attended our field hearing on Friday, and I was particularly struck by the many parents who expressed their fears over what ACA repeal would mean for their children's healthcare. In other States, too, large numbers of people are attending town hall meetings to express overwhelming opposition to the Republican leaders' bill. We need to listen. We need to stop this headlong rush to pass a cruel and heartless bill."

During her remarks on the Senate floor, Shaheen highlighted the stories of Paula Garvey from Amherst who is worried that insurance companies would impose lifetime limits on benefits for her 19-year-old daughter Rosie, who has cystic fibrosis; Sarah Sadowski from Concord whose daughter has cerebral palsy; and Melissa Fernald from Wolfeboro whose patients rely on Medicaid expansion for their health insurance.

"Trumpcare would be a disaster for people in New Hampshire," said Senator Hassan. "Granite Staters know this and they have been standing up and speaking out against this dangerous bill. As Senator Shaheen discussed, we held an emergency hearing last week in Concord to hear from our constituents about how Trumpcare would impact them. We held this emergency hearing at 2 p.m., on a Friday afternoon in the summer, with just a day's notice - yet hundreds of people showed up. [...] They told us what their lives were like, and why Trumpcare would be devastating to them and their families. I'd like to share some of those stories here today."

On the Senate floor, Senator Hassan highlighted the stories of Ariel, a mother from Rochester who has struggled with substance misuse and is now in recovery because of services she received through Medicaid; Jeff, who has muscular dystrophy and discussed how Medicaid covers critical services for people with disabilities that private insurance doesn't cover; and Enna, who is self-employed and purchases health insurance through New Hampshire's Marketplace, providing affordable care for her and her family that she couldn't get before the Affordable Care Act.