{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/new-video-murray-highlights-how-republican-states-will-be-hit-hardest-by-maga-health-care-hike-when-open-enrollment-begins-saturday-lays-out-state-of-play-on-health-care-snap/", "NEW VIDEO: Murray Highlights How *Republican* States Will be Hit Hardest By MAGA Health Care Hike When Open Enrollment Begins Saturday; Lays Out State of Play on Health Care & SNAP", "2025-10-31", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "Murray responds to absurd Dr. Oz lie: \u201cRepublicans have no plan to stop the MAGA health care hike. The only idea they have seems to be to lie and pretend it is just going to cost families $13 extra next year. I mean, go back home and try that with your constituents! They will shout you out of the room!\u201d\n\nMore than three-quarters of the people who rely on ACA tax credits for health insurance live in red states\n\n***DOWNLOAD RAW VIDEO HERE; WATCH HERE***\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Ahead of the start of open enrollment nationwide tomorrow, Saturday November 1st, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)\u2014Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee\u2014released a new video message on how 22 million Americans will see massive price hikes when they begin shopping online for health insurance coverage on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange marketplaces tomorrow, whether on Washington Healthplanfinder or the national HealthCare.gov site.\n\nSenator Murray called out Republicans for causing a \u201cMAGA health care hike\u201d and highlighted how Republicans\u2019 refusal to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits\u2014the reason prices are skyrocketing\u2014is going to hurt people in Republican states harder than anywhere else. Among other proof points, Murray pointed out that 80 percent of the funding for the ACA tax credits that Republicans refuse to save goes to states Trump won.\n\nDOWNLOAD HERE; WATCH HERE\n\nSenator Murray has been warning nonstop, every day, for weeks about how Republicans\u2019 refusal to save the ACA enhanced premium tax credits will cause premiums to explode\u2014and how the harm will be felt most in states that voted for Trump. She has forcefully warned that the 10 states facing the largest premium hikes are red states, and she took her case directly to Idahoans and Montanans in separate press calls in recent weeks.\n\nOpen enrollment in Washington state and nationwide begins this Saturday, November 1st. Last week, Washington state\u2019s ACA marketplace, Washington Healthplanfinder, opened its \u201cwindow shopping\u201d period, allowing Washingtonians to look at plans for next year\u2014and most are seeing dramatic increases in their premiums thanks to Republican inaction. On average, premiums for ACA plans in Washington state are spiking by 21 percent. Nationwide, 22 million Americans who buy health care through the ACA exchanges will see their health care costs skyrocket next year without the tax credits, premiums are more than doubling on average, and these higher costs will push 4.8 million people off their health coverage over the next decade. A Washington-state specific fact sheet on the ACA tax credits is HERE.\n\nIn the video message (TIMESTAMP: 0:52), Senator Murray also lays out how Republicans have callously decided to cut off SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans beginning November 1st, saying:\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s be clear: this weekend, SNAP benefits will run dry. Not because there is no money left to keep families fed, but because Trump is choosing not to tap contingency funds. He is choosing to let kids go hungry. It\u2019s also not because Congress can\u2019t possibly reach an agreement to fund SNAP. There is a Republican bill specifically to keep SNAP going that we could pass, no problem. In fact, there is a Republican bill with fourteen Republican cosponsors to keep SNAP going. But the Republican leader won\u2019t even hold a vote on it. He is sending everyone home rather than hold a vote on a bill he knows will pass. Now, keep in mind: he\u2019s happy to vote 14 times on a bill he knows won\u2019t pass. But he won\u2019t vote once on a bill he knows will pass. Someone explain that to me. Someone explain that to folks back home\u2014who are going to go hungry because of the Republican Leader\u2019s decision.\u201d\n\nThis week, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced legislation to ensure SNAP funding does not run dry\u2014the bill has Democratic support and 10 Republican cosponsors, and as Murray notes, Republican Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) chose to send the Senate home rather than hold a vote on the bill\u2014which would have passed. In addition, Democrats introduced and tried to pass this week a separate bill to ensure continued funding for both SNAP and WIC\u2014but Leader Thune blocked it.\n\nMeanwhile, President Trump has outright refused to tap billions of dollars in the SNAP contingency fund to pay out November benefits\u2014ignoring the law, bipartisan calls to tap the contingency fund to disburse benefits, and USDA\u2019s own September 30th shutdown contingency plan. The September document makes clear the SNAP contingency fund not only can be used to keep SNAP running, but that it was the Department\u2019s plan to do just that before Trump inexplicably reversed course and decided to let 42 million Americans go hungry this month. Yesterday, Politico reported that a federal judge appeared likely to rule in favor of a lawsuit brought by Democratic states arguing that the Trump administration must use emergency funds to fund SNAP benefits in November. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in part: \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to understand how this isn\u2019t an emergency when there\u2019s no money and a lot of people need their SNAP benefits.\u201d\n\nSenator Murray briefly relied on food stamps as a child and has always fought to fully fund SNAP benefits, and she forcefully opposed Republicans when they made the largest cut to SNAP in history this summer\u2014kicking roughly 1 million kids off their SNAP benefits or substantially cutting them in their Big Ugly Bill.\n\nA full transcript of Senator Murray\u2019s remarks in the video message is below:\n\n\u201cThis weekend, 22 million people are going to see their premiums skyrocket when open enrollment begins. Some will double. Some will triple. Some will quadruple, and even worse.\n\n\u201cBut Republicans don\u2019t want to talk about that. They haven\u2019t wanted to talk about it all year long. Never mind the fact that 80 percent of this funding goes to states Trump won. Never mind the fact that the biggest price hikes are all in Republican states.\n\n\u201cAnd make no mistake, this is the MAGA health care hike. Not just because Republicans are causing it\u2014though they are\u2014but because this price hike is going to hit MAGA states harder than anyone.\n\n\u201cAnd yet, even our most MAGA Senators have done nothing about this all year. They were too busy shoveling tax breaks at billionaires!\n\n\u201cAlso, let\u2019s be clear: this weekend, SNAP benefits will run dry. Not because there is no money left to keep families fed, but because Trump is choosing not to tap contingency funds. He is choosing to let kids go hungry.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s also not because Congress can\u2019t possibly reach an agreement to fund SNAP. There is a Republican bill specifically to keep SNAP going that we could pass, no problem. In fact, there is a Republican bill with fourteen Republican cosponsors to keep SNAP going.\n\n\u201cBut the Republican leader won\u2019t even hold a vote on it. He is sending everyone home rather than hold a vote on a bill he knows will pass. Now, keep in mind: he\u2019s happy to vote 14 times on a bill he knows won\u2019t pass. But he won\u2019t vote once on a bill he knows will pass.\n\n\u201cSomeone explain that to me. Someone explain that to folks back home who are going to go hungry because of the Republican Leader\u2019s decision. And then, can someone explain to me why Republicans have refused, all year long, to talk about health care tax credits that overwhelmingly help Republican states?\n\n\u201cI just cannot get over, I just cannot understand, how Democrats are the only ones fighting to save these health care tax credits, even as Trump states are the ones facing the worst of the crisis to come.\n\n\u201cInstead, we have Dr. Oz trying to say it\u2019s going to be just a $13 dollar increase. Do you think that is going to fool families? There is a woman in Tennessee whose premium is going to go from $10 a month to over $1,000 a month\u2014and she is not alone. Do Republicans think they can convince her $1,000 is $13?\n\n\u201cI know when it comes to helping billionaires, Republicans are happy to use magic math and say trillions in tax breaks are free\u2014but these families live in the real world. Their premiums are really jumping by hundreds, even thousands, of dollars a month.\n\n\u201cThat is not a theory. That is not spin. They are window shopping right now. They are seeing the price hikes in real time. And come Saturday, when Open Enrollment begins, those sky high, unaffordable prices are going to become a reality. And not just for the 220,000 people back in Washington state I am fighting for every single day.\n\n\u201cThe MAGA health care hike is going to hit nearly half a million people in Alabama, more than half a million in Ohio, and more than 600,000 people in South Carolina and Tennessee.\n\n\u201cThe MAGA health care hike is going to hit nearly four million people in Texas, and over four million people in Florida. But all Republicans have to say is \u2018wait\u2019 and \u2018later.\u2019\n\n\u201cRepublicans should be begging us to stop the MAGA health care hike. They should be coming to us with their own plans to stop the MAGA health care hike. But they have been silent all year.\n\n\u201cAnd what are they saying now? Some Republicans arguing it\u2019s not their problem because they never wanted to lower health care costs in the first place. Some Republicans are saying they still wish we repealed Obamacare.\n\n\u201cI even heard one Republican saying they want to bring back high-risk pools. You know what that means? That means gutting the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. \u2018You have cancer? Well, no health insurance for you.\u2019\n\n\u201cFamilies are about to see premiums double, or worse, and every Republican idea I\u2019ve heard so far is just, \u2018What if we made the problem worse?\u2019 And mind you, none of these ideas\u2014bad, awful ideas\u2014would actually do a single thing to stop the price hikes that are going into effect Saturday.\n\n\u201cThe fact of the matter is: Republicans have no plan to stop the MAGA health care hike. The only idea they have seems to be to lie and pretend it is just going to cost families $13 extra next year. I mean, go back home and try that with your constituents! They will shout you out of the room. $13 dollars? The gall.\n\n\u201cI truly could not be more frustrated. I truly cannot understand why Democrats can sit at the table all year long, asking to stop this MAGA health care price hike, and Republicans would never even give us the time of day.\n\n\u201cRepublicans would literally rather shut down the government than stop these premium hikes. And even now, the only thing they will say is \u2018later,\u2019 even when later is too late.\n\n\u201cEvery day this drags on, the damage gets worse. There is not a second to waste. There has never been a second to waste. Open enrollment is all but here. Price hikes are all but locked in.\n\n\u201cFrom start to finish, Democrats have been at the table, and we still are not going anywhere. But from start to finish, Republicans have been missing in action. And what do they want to do now? Send us all home and ignore the train as it crashes in front of them. It\u2019s disgraceful. And they should be ashamed.\n\n\u201cAnd they should know families will not forget this, because they are going to be paying the cost of the MAGA health care hike. Every. Single. Month.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "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/new-video-murray-highlights-how-republican-states-will-be-hit-hardest-by-maga-health-care-hike-when-open-enrollment-begins-saturday-lays-out-state-of-play-on-health-care-snap/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0592431537806988, "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"}