[VIDEO] Sen. Coons urges GOP to halt efforts to repeal ACA without replacement plan and serious debate, shares stories of Delawareans benefiting from…

[VIDEO] Sen. Coons urges GOP to halt efforts to repeal ACA without replacement plan and serious debate, shares stories of Delawareans benefiting from the law

January 10, 2017

Contact: Sean Coit at 202-224-5042 or [email protected]

"Two years ago I came to this floor with a simple, common-sense request of my Republican colleagues: work with us to make to make the Affordable Care Act better."

"A simple repeal of the Affordable Care Act would cut 3 million jobs and trigger negative economic impacts well beyond the health care sector by creating profound uncertainty."

"Trumpcare, a simple repeal, by one estimate, would kick 26 million Americans, more than 50,000 Delawareans, off their health insurance."

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) spoke yesterday on the Senate floor to urge Republicans to work across the aisle to focus on pursuing constructive, bipartisan fixes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), rather than a wholesale repeal of the law.

Full audio and video of Senator Coons' speech available here: http://bit.ly/2jeDz9h

Excerpts from Senator Coons' remarks below:

"More than 20 million Americans now have gained access to high-quality health insurance across our whole country, including 38,000 more Delawareans."

"I've sought to address the affordability of health care coverage for all families, co-sponsored bills to increase tax credits to make it more affordable for small businesses. [I've] looked for ways to make sure that there is more competition in the marketplace, especially in small states like Delaware. And [I've] pursued common sense regulatory reforms and cost containment efforts to further slow the growth in health care costs."

"The alternative, let's call it Trumpcare, nothing more than a wholesale repeal with no clear plan to replace [it]."

"Trumpcare, a simple repeal, by one estimate, would kick 26 million Americans, more than 50,000 Delawareans, off their health insurance."

"Even for those who don't lose their insurance, those hundreds of thousands of Delawareans who get their health insurance through their employer, it would be much lower quality because it would remove all of the consumer protections that we've all come to embrace."

"It would give a nearly $350 billion tax cut to the wealthiest 1 percent of our country, and a nearly $250 billion tax cut to big corporations. And while tax cuts have their day and their reason, pushing aside all that revenue with no plan for how to replace the Affordable Care Act and how to pay for it, I think will become a desperate and dangerous move."

"A simple repeal of the Affordable Care Act would cut 3 million jobs and trigger negative economic impacts well beyond the health care sector by creating profound uncertainty. And last, it would burden state and local governments, which would lose nearly 50 billion in tax revenue."

"That's the reality. Describing a repeal of the Affordable Care Act as anything other than the injection of wild uncertainty into our daily lives and to the health insurance and health care markets is just not square."