{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/republican-shutdown-day-13-senator-murray-meets-with-doctors-in-oak-harbor-to-discuss-how-republicans-are-forcing-health-care-costs-to-skyrocket-threatening-community-health-centers/", "REPUBLICAN SHUTDOWN DAY 13: Senator Murray Meets With Doctors in Oak Harbor to Discuss How Republicans are Forcing Health Care Costs to Skyrocket, Threatening Community Health Centers", "2025-10-13", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "KFF: ACA Marketplace Premium Payments Will More than Double on Average Next Year if Enhanced Premium Tax Credits Expire\n\nSenator Murray has been holding nonstop events with Washingtonians who will see their premiums skyrocket next year to lift up their stories, demand Republicans come to the negotiating table and act to save health care\n\n*** PHOTOS AND B-ROLL HERE***\n\nOak Harbor, WA \u2014 Today,U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, visited Sea Mar Community Health Centers\u2019 Oak Harbor Clinic to hear directly from doctors and health care providers about how they are being affected by Republicans\u2019 recent attacks on health care\u2014including cutting Medicaid by the largest amount in history, and letting millions of Americans\u2019 health care premiums more than double by refusing to extend critical Affordable Care Act (ACA) health care tax credits for middle-class families.\n\nRight now, Democrats are fighting in Congress to stop health care costs from skyrocketing\u2014urging Republicans to join them at the negotiating table to hammer out compromise legislation to reopen the government and prevent people\u2019s health care costs from skyrocketing. For months, Republicans have refused to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, and if they are not extended soon, 22 million Americans across the country\u2014including more than 216,000 people in Washington state\u2014will see their health care costs spike in January. According to KFF, premiums will more than double for Americans who buy health care through the ACA exchanges, and these higher costs will push 4.2 million people off their health coverage over the next decade\u2014including an estimated 80,000 people in Washington state, where health insurers have been approved for an average rate hike of 21 percent.\n\nSenator Murray has been speaking out nonstop about the urgent need to save health care and keep the government open and calling on Republicans to come to the table to negotiate a bipartisan deal\u2014which they have so far refused to do. As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray leads legislation supported by the Democratic caucus that would reopen the government, address the health care crisis, and protect Congress\u2019 power of the purse from Donald Trump and Russ Vought\u2019s nonstop, lawless efforts to block funding from reaching communities across the country.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump and Republicans have created a full-blown health care crisis, and they aren\u2019t willing to lift a finger to clean up their own mess,\u201d Senator Murray said. \u201cRepublicans have gutted Medicaid and our hospitals and community health centers are going to be forced to make staffing and service cuts. And, after forcing a completely avoidable government shutdown, Republicans are still refusing to come to the table to extend critical tax credits to stop health care premiums from skyrocketing for millions of Americans. Right now, people across Washington state are getting letters in the mail saying their premiums are set to double\u2014or go up by even more next year. Millions of Americans will be forced to go without health insurance, including an estimated 80,000 people in Washington state. This is unacceptable\u2014I won\u2019t stand by while Republicans continue to attack our health care system and risk the health of Americans. I\u2019ll keep raising the alarm, pushing back, and fighting every way I can to stop Republicans\u2019 health care sabotage.\u201d\n\nSenator Murray played a critical role in passing the enhanced premium tax credits in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and extending them in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, and she has been fighting for months to make sure these important health care tax credits don\u2019t expire, including cosponsoring multiple pieces of legislation\u2014the Health Care Affordability Act and the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act\u2014that would make them permanent. She has held countless recent events across Washington state and in Washington, D.C. with doctors, patients, and former HHS officials to highlight their stories and bring attention to how Trump and Republicans\u2019 attacks on health care are devastating American families.\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/republican-shutdown-day-13-senator-murray-meets-with-doctors-in-oak-harbor-to-discuss-how-republicans-are-forcing-health-care-costs-to-skyrocket-threatening-community-health-centers/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8327420800924301, "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"}