{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/at-hearing-on-health-care-affordability-senator-murray-slams-republicans-for-massive-health-care-cuts-and-refusal-to-stop-premiums-from-skyrocketing-next-year-urges-extension-of-aca-tax-credits/", "At Hearing on Health Care Affordability, Senator Murray Slams Republicans for Massive Health Care Cuts and Refusal to Stop Premiums from Skyrocketing Next Year, Urges Extension of ACA Tax Credits", "2025-12-03", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senator Murray: \u201cSaying \u2018let\u2019s start talking about fixing this now,\u2019 a month into open enrollment, instead of at any point earlier this year when we actually had time to stop premiums from skyrocketing or look at some of these different reforms\u2014well, that is about as serious as expressing concern about RFK Jr.\u2019s anti-vax crusade after voting to make him the most powerful public health official in the country.\u201d\n\nSenator Murray: \u201cI do want to note that tomorrow, CDC\u2019s Vaccine Committee is meeting to discuss the childhood vaccine schedule, and the Hepatitis B vaccines\u2014something the chair of this Committee has said many times save lives. The CDC Advisory Committee is going to hear from who-knows-who\u2026 I am deeply alarmed that this Committee has not done more oversight, and we still have not done a thing to force RFK Jr. to come here and answer questions about his decision to fire the CDC Director Monarez and limit access to lifesaving vaccines. I hope that will change.\u201d\n\nSenator Murray has been sounding the alarm on the looming health care cost cliff and calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to extend the ACA tax credits for YEARS\u2014FULL TIMELINE HERE\n\n***WATCH: Senator Murray\u2019s remarks on health care and Q&A with witnesses***\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on health care affordability, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)\u2014a former chair and senior member of the HELP Committee\u2014slammed Republican hypocrisy on health care affordability and called on Republicans to support a clean extension of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits to curb at least some of the damage from the massive health care premium hikes Republicans have already set in motion by refusing to lift a finger to extend the ACA tax credits earlier this year.\n\nBecause of Republicans\u2019 refusal to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, 22 million Americans\u2014including over 216,000 in Washington state\u2014are seeing their health care costs for next year skyrocket. Premiums are more than doubling on average for people who buy health coverage on the Marketplace (Washington Healthplanfinder in Washington state), and these higher costs will push 4.8 million people off their health insurance coverage over the next decade. A Washington-state specific fact sheet on the ACA enhanced premium tax credits is HERE.\n\nIn opening remarks, Senator Murray said:\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be real here: We are a month into open enrollment. A full month. The time to save people from these huge increases in cost that they\u2019re going to see because the ACA tax credits was before those premium hikes were all-but locked in.\n\n\u201cSaying \u2018let\u2019s start talking about fixing this now,\u2019a month into open enrollment, instead of any point earlier this year when we actually had time to stop premiums from skyrocketing or look at some of these different reforms\u2014well, this is about as serious as expressing concern about RFK Jr.\u2019s anti-vax crusade after voting to make him the most powerful public health official in the country.\n\n\u201cThe time is out. Realistically, the only way, the only way now we can still stop people from seeing these huge increases is a clean extension and a longer open enrollment. And I think we should be honest about that.\n\n\u201cI appreciate the ideas being tossed around, even if I have some concerns with some of the proposals. But if Republicans had come to the table at any point this year, there would still be time to sit down and talk.\n\n\u201cBut we have now seen Republicans run out the clock. They blew right past the start of open enrollment! Forget about time spent negotiating\u2014even if we passed a bill today, there is not time to implement anything more complicated than a clean extension.\n\n\u201cSo, if Republicans are serious about preventing the MAGA health care hike, they should work with us right now to pass a clean, one-year extension\u2014as fast as possible. Literally right now.\n\n\u201cAnd if their call for reforming tax credits is serious, we should look at that. We can talk about reforms\u2014ahead of the 2027 year.\n\n\u201cBut I have to say, I am not optimistic that most Republicans are serious about saving people from exploding costs, because they refused to talk about this problem before right now, and I have been down this road before.\n\n\u201cDuring the first Trump administration, I sat across from Chair Alexander and we hammered out a bipartisan plan to lower costs. We were on the one-yard line. Then the call came down from Trump and Republican leaders: they didn\u2019t want a deal. They didn\u2019t want to lower health care costs.\n\n\u201cAnd they started demanding restrictions on abortion\u2014something that had never been an issue in our talks until then\u2014and used that pretext to torpedo months of bipartisan negotiations. So, excuse my skepticism today when we have seen this tired playbook.\n\n\u201cIf Republicans want to talk health care, great. Unfortunately, we\u2019ve heard many Republicans make it clear they are not serious. But if that changes, I am at the table. I\u2019m ready to talk about our health care system in this country.\u201d\n\nAppearing at the hearing as witnesses were: Joel White, President, Council for Affordable Health Coverage; Marcie Strouse, Owner and Partner, Capitol Benefits Group; and Claudia M. Fegan, MD, National Coordinator, Physicians for a National Health Program.\n\n[MEDICAID AND ACA CUTS]\n\nSenator Murray began her questioning by asking Dr. Fegan about the gigantic cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act that Republicans passed into law this summer as part of their partisan reconciliation bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: \u201cSo Dr. Fegan, let me talk to you. Did any of the cuts Republicans made in their reconciliation bill this summer make health care more affordable for American families?\u201d\n\n\u201cThey did not,\u201d answered Dr. Fegan.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve heard a lot of discussion about making coverage more affordable for small businesses and employers,\u201d Senator Murray continued. \u201cI think what is important to acknowledge is that nearly half of adults within the ACA Marketplace are small business owners or employees, and letting these tax credits expire is going to hurt them dramatically.\u201d\n\n[UPCOMING CDC ACIP MEETING]\n\nIn concluding her questioning, Senator Murray said: \u201cBefore my time is almost up, I do want to note that tomorrow, CDC\u2019s Vaccine Committee is meeting to discuss the childhood vaccine schedule, and the Hepatitis B vaccines\u2014something the chair of this Committee has said many times save lives. The CDC Advisory Committee is going to hear from who-knows-who.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut based on the fact CDC\u2019s own website now spreads anti-vax disinformation, I want to state for the record, I am deeply alarmed that this Committee has not done more oversight, and we still have not done a thing to force RFK Jr. to come here and answer questions about his decision to fire the CDC Director Monarez and limit access to lifesaving vaccines. I hope that will change.\u201d\n\nJust yesterday, Senator Murray released a statement in response to reporting by the Washington Post that, in their upcoming meeting this week, vaccine advisors handpicked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kennedy for the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) are planning to vote on ending the practice of vaccinating all newborns for Hepatitis B. \u201cEnding the decades-long recommendation that babies born in the U.S. get vaccinated against Hepatitis B is a heartless choice to allow babies to die in the United States,\u201d Murray said, calling on HELP Chairman Cassidy to compel RFK Jr. to testify before the HELP Committee.\n\nSenator Murray has been speaking out nonstop about the urgent need to save health care and calling on Republicans to come to the negotiating table to work out a bipartisan deal to extend the ACA tax credits\u2014which they have so far refused to do. She took to the Senate floor in November with her Democratic colleagues in November to call for a clean one-year extension of the ACA tax credits, and has held numerous virtual press conferences with Washingtonians, as well as residents of neighboring states Idaho and Montana, about the exploding health care premiums that Americans are seeing due to the expiration of the tax credits. As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray led legislation supported by the Democratic caucus that would have addressed the health care crisis during the government shutdown. Senator Murray has also cosponsored multiple pieces of legislation over the past year\u2014the Health Care Affordability Actand the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act\u2014that would make the ACA tax credits permanent.\n\nSenator Murray played a critical role in passing the ACA enhanced premium tax credits into law in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and extending them in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Since then, she has called on Republicans to extend the enhanced premium tax credits dozens of times, calling attention to the tax credit cliff and how millions of Americans will see their health care costs jump dramatically if Republicans don\u2019t work with Democrats on an extension.\n\nA timeline detailing how Senator Murray has been fighting for years to extend the ACA tax credits, and calling on Republicans to come to the table and negotiate, is HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "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.murray.senate.gov/at-hearing-on-health-care-affordability-senator-murray-slams-republicans-for-massive-health-care-cuts-and-refusal-to-stop-premiums-from-skyrocketing-next-year-urges-extension-of-aca-tax-credits/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.8324903212487698, "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"}