Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress Action Fund hosted a virtual event, “The True Cost of the Republican Health Care Agenda.” The event, coming mere hours before a possible government shutdown, featured keynote remarks from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and a panel discussion among key health care stakeholders.
Below are key highlights from Sen. Shaheen’s remarks:
For families in New Hampshire, we’re talking about in one of our northern-most counties where the average family income for a family of four is $75,000, they’re going to see premium increases of more than $3,300 [if the enhanced premium tax credits expire]. That’s a lot of money that many people are not going to be able to afford … The people who will be most affected are small-business owners and their employees, people living in rural areas, working families, and older Americans, the people who could least afford to pay those cost increases …
There are real implications for not extending those tax credits … We really can’t wait until the end of the year [to extend them]. That’s one of the things that we are hearing from some of the Republicans in Congress … But what we heard from the Congressional Budget Office was if we wait—we’re going to have 1.5 million people lose their health insurance if we wait until later in the year, so that’s not an option. This is a problem that is not that difficult to solve. We ought to be able to agree that it’s in everyone’s interest to ensure people can have access to health insurance at a price that they can afford.
Please click here to watch “The True Cost of the Republican Health Care Agenda.”
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Colin Seeberger at [email protected].