{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/in-port-townsend-murray-tours-jefferson-healthcare-and-reiterates-need-to-repeal-gop-health-care-cuts-expand-health-care-access/", "In Port Townsend, Murray Tours Jefferson Healthcare and Reiterates Need to Repeal GOP Health Care Cuts, Expand Health Care Access", "2026-09-01", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL HERE***\n\nPort Townsend, WA \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), toured Jefferson Healthcare and discussed the new challenges health care providers are facing over a year after Republicans passed the largest health care cuts in history in their Big Ugly Bill. Throughout the tour, Senator Murray heard from providers about the impact of the Republicans\u2019 cuts to Medicaid and their failure to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits\u2014causing massive premium hikes for families in Washington state.\n\nThe Republican reconciliation bill, which was signed into law in July 2025, cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA over the next 10 years and will make health care more expensive and harder to access. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that Republicans\u2019 health care cuts will terminate health insurance for roughly 15 million Americans nationwide.\n\n\u201cRepublicans passed the largest cuts to health care in history and have singlehandedly created a national health care crisis. Meanwhile, providers are left to wonder how they will keep their staff paid and their doors open,\u201d said Senator Murray. \u201cProviders are doing incredible work, but they\u2019re being asked to do a more with a whole lot less. If that weren\u2019t damaging enough, Republicans refused to extend the health care tax credits\u2014which millions of people relied on to afford health coverage. The fallout from that has been devastating. Families saw their premiums double, triple, or even worse. When families in Jefferson County can\u2019t afford coverage, they don\u2019t get less sick\u2014they just end up in emergency rooms where hospitals eat the cost and everyone else foots the bill. Congress needs to repeal Trump\u2019s cuts to health care\u2014getting there won\u2019t be easy, but we must fight hard and make sure all Americans understand the harm these cuts are doing.\u201d\n\nABOUT TRUMP\u2019S MEDICAID CUTS:\n\nNationwide, the Republican health care cuts represent a more than $400 billion hit to America\u2019s hospitals\u2014with one estimate finding that over 170 rural hospitals will likely be forced to close or scale back their services, which will force more Americans to travel further for maternity care and emergency room visits, and face longer wait times. Washington state is one of the states most at-risk, with 22 hospitals at-risk of closing or reducing services. An estimated 477,000 health workers will lose their jobs as a result of the Republican cuts to Medicaid. Senator Murray has consistently advocated for rural health care access across the state, hosting numerous events to emphasize the importance of investment into rural communities.\n\nHospitals in Washington state could lose at least $662 million in Medicaid revenue every year under the One Big Beautiful Act (OBBBA)\u2014forcing hospitals to lay off staff, cut services, or close their doors entirely. Overall, Washington state is expected to lose between $31 billion and $51 billion in federal Medicaid dollars over the next decade. In 2024, Washington had an uninsured rate of 4.8 percent\u2014the lowest in the country\u2014but the Republican bill is expected to balloon that number into the double digits.\n\nIn Washington state, nearly 2 million people\u2014roughly 1 in 5\u2014are enrolled in Apple Health, the state\u2019s Medicaid program. Washington\u2019s 4th Congressional District has the highest Medicaid enrollment in Washington state, with nearly 300,000 people\u201438 percent of all residents\u2014reliant on Apple Health, including 70 percent of all children in the state.\n\nABOUT GOP REFUSAL TO EXTEND ACA TAX CREDITS:\n\nSenator Murray forced the issue of the ACA tax credits at every opportunity before Republicans ultimately refused to take any action, 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. She took to the Senate floor in November 2025 with her Democratic colleagues to call for a clean one-year extension of the ACA tax credits, and 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 would see 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 last fall. Senator Murray has also cosponsored multiple pieces of legislation over the past year\u2014the Health Care Affordability Act and the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act\u2014that would make the ACA tax credits permanent.\n\nAs then-chair of the Senate Health Committee, Senator 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.", 1, "2026-09-02T09:19:58Z", "2026-09-02T09:20:51Z"]], "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/in-port-townsend-murray-tours-jefferson-healthcare-and-reiterates-need-to-repeal-gop-health-care-cuts-expand-health-care-access/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0667321514338255, "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"}