{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/with-trump-and-republicans-mia-from-washington-senators-murphy-smith-and-warren-meet-with-floridians-hardest-hit-by-republican-health-care-crisis", "With Trump and Republicans MIA from Washington, Senators Murphy, Smith, and Warren Meet with Floridians Hardest Hit by Republican Health Care Crisis", "2025-11-03", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", "chrismurphy", "https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "MIAMI, FL\u2014Today, U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) traveled to Miami, Florida to host a roundtable with Floridians struggling with the rising health care costs and massive coverage cuts caused by President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress.\n\nWhile Trump throws lavish parties and House Republicans refuse to show up for work, Americans who rely on the ACA for health insurance are seeing their premiums double or triple. As the top market for ACA insurance coverage in the country, South Florida is the epicenter of this Republican-made crisis. According to estimates, nearly a third of the 4.7 million Floridians enrolled in ACA plans could lose coverage because of Donald Trump and Republicans\u2019 cuts to Medicaid and ACA tax credits.\n\nSenators Murphy, Smith, and Warren sat down with Floridians who rely on the ACA tax credits, health care providers, and union members in Miami to hear the real-life consequences of Republicans\u2019 refusal to come to the table and negotiate an end to the government shutdown that lowers health care costs for working Americans.\n\nFind excerpts of the roundtable discussion below:\n\nSenator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) emphasized the importance of traveling to Miami-Dade to speak to Floridians facing the most extreme impacts of Republicans\u2019 health care attacks: \u201cDonald Trump and Republicans in Washington would rather shut down the government than help make health care affordable for more Americans. It\u2019s just that straightforward. We\u2019re here, particularly in Miami-Dade, because you\u2019re ground zero in absorbing the pain from the Republicans\u2019 cuts. You are the ones who will lose more people off health care altogether, and more people will see their premiums go up than any place else in the country.\u201d\n\nSenator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) put a spotlight on Republicans\u2019 bankrupt priorities after they passed tax cuts for billionaires this summer while creating a health care crisis for everyday Americans: \u201cLast summer, Donald Trump and Republicans passed the \u2018Big Beautiful Bill,\u2019 and in that bill, they found ways of drastically cutting Medicaid and they found ways of extending huge tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. But what they couldn't figure out how to do is how to pass the affordable tax credits for the ACA that actually make health insurance affordable for regular people. And so, here we are at this moment, where people are opening up to shop on the exchange, and in some cases they\u2019re seeing that their costs are going up thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars a year, and people just can\u2019t afford it.\u201d\n\nSenator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) outlined the stakes of the shutdown fight, demanding Republicans come to the table and work with Democrats to stop the devastating health care crisis they created: \u201cThis fight matters. As you know, the government is shut down right now, and what Democrats have said is that we want to get the government open, but not with an immoral budget that throws millions of people off their health care\u2026 If we're going to fund the government, let's fund a government that doesn't result in the kind of devastation of the health care system that is planned under the current trajectory. Are we going to help the billionaires and the corporations? Are we going to help regular people throughout the country?\u201d\n\nScott Darius, the executive director of Florida Voices for Health, a nonprofit advocacy organization working to improve health care outcomes in the state, highlighted the millions in Florida who will suffer as a result of health care premium subsidies expiring: \u201cWe\u2019re in a really precarious moment in health care. I think for as long as I\u2019ve been in this work, it\u2019s the one moment where we\u2019ve had so many people at risk of losing their access to care, and that\u2019s a big deal. 4.7 million Floridians are enrolled in the marketplace. 1 million - over 1 million of them here in Miami-Dade County alone\u2026 so all of that to say: Florida, we\u2019re the epicenter. We\u2019re where things will get bad if we aren\u2019t able to extend these enhanced premium tax credits.\u201d\n\nFrancoise Cham, a single mom with a family history of heart disease, shared the impossible choice she faces with skyrocketing premium costs: \u201cI\u2019m a single mom, I\u2019m self-employed, and before the ACA came about, I spent 25 years without insurance. I could never keep a nine-to-five job because I had to take care of my parents and a brother who was paralyzed. And in that process, I became a mother, so I have four people relying on me\u2026 The other day, I went online to check to see what my premium would be, and it went up by more than 250%. So now, I have to decide: food or my premium.\u201d\n\nKara Farley, a cancer survivor whose husband is diabetic, said she feared having to choose between her care or his: \u201cI qualify for the ACA plan with a tax credit subsidy for myself and my husband. Prior to this, I didn\u2019t have insurance at all. Back in 2008, I went through an ovarian cancer diagnosis. I was diagnosed in an emergency room, where I went with pain symptoms. I had to have all of my treatment done without insurance, which sent me into medical debt for years. My husband is a type one diabetic who also suffers from seizures. .. In 2021, we qualified for a tax credit subsidy through the Affordable Care Act, and it has made an everlasting difference for us\u2026 My husband hasn\u2019t been to the emergency room with a diabetic episode in over four years\u2026 I did check the marketplace and our insurance is going up double what we\u2019re paying now\u2026 I honestly don\u2019t know where we\u2019ll find that extra money in our budget, and I don\u2019t want to be back in a position where we\u2019re trying to decide if I can get treatment or my husband does.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/with-trump-and-republicans-mia-from-washington-senators-murphy-smith-and-warren-meet-with-floridians-hardest-hit-by-republican-health-care-crisis"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6599079351872206, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}