{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/senators-murray-and-schumer-americans-who-rely-on-aca-tax-credits-call-on-republicans-to-prevent-premiums-from-skyrocketing-for-millions/", "Senators Murray and Schumer, Americans Who Rely on ACA Tax Credits Call on Republicans to Prevent Premiums from Skyrocketing for Millions", "2025-10-16", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "KFF: Most Republicans and MAGA Supporters Say Congress Should Extend the Enhanced ACA Tax Credits Set to Expire Next Year\n\nKFF: ACA Marketplace Premium Payments Will More than Double on Average Next Year if Enhanced Premium Tax Credits Expire\n\n***WATCH: full press conference***\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 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, joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for a virtual press conference on the 16th day of the Republican shutdown with Protect Our Care, and Washington state and New York residents who rely on Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits to afford health care.\n\n\u201cRepublicans can\u2019t just stick their heads in the sand. They can\u2019t just say we will worry about it later. Families are facing this right now. Notices are in the mail at this very moment, telling families: \u2018Hey, I\u2019m sorry, but your monthly premium is going up by hundreds\u2014maybe even thousands\u2014of dollars.\u2019 Window shopping begins in Washington state next week and is already underway in several states. People are logging on right now to see if the news is true, and they are seeing some eye-popping price hikes. This is happening across the country. Right now. I\u2019ve spoken to people back in Washington state who are seeing the numbers and have no idea how they are going to afford health care if Republicans let their premiums double,\u201d said Senator Murray. \u201cSo Republicans who think they can just stick their heads in the sand and ignore the chaos they caused are fooling no one except themselves. Certainly not the American people.\u201d\n\nFor 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. A Washington-state specific fact sheet on the ACA tax credits is HERE.\n\nMore than 3 in 4 people who get their health care through the ACA marketplaces\u201418.7 million out of 24.3 million\u2014live in states President Trump won in 2024. The vast majority of Americans want Congress to renew the ACA tax credits, according to recent polling from KFF\u2014including six in ten Republicans and a majority of Republicans who identify as MAGA. At the press conference, Senator Murray made it clear how inaction Republicans will force health care premiums to explode next year. She implored Republican leaders to come to the table as new signs indicate that Republicans are feeling that heat on their deeply unpopular position. In recent days, reporting has indicated that the White House is privately fretting about the issue, and President Trump signaled openness to cutting a deal. Meanwhile, some House Republicans have called out Republican leadership for causing the shutdown and failing to have a solution or plan to prevent people\u2019s premiums from exploding.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m a Commissioner for Three Rivers Hospital, a nonprofit, critical access, rural hospital in Brewster, Washington. Our diverse hospital district serves about 70% Medicare and Medicaid dependent patients and many more who rely upon insurance through the Affordable Care Act. So naturally, I\u2019m quite concerned about extending the ACA tax credits for our patients, my constituents, my friends and neighbors. But it also hits me quite close to home, as for the past 40 years, my husband has worked now as the sole employee of a third generation mom-and-pop style building supply store and lumber yard. About a month ago, he received an email warning him that his ACA insurance was likely ending on December 31st due to a lack of funding and that the subsidized payments would not be extended. Currently, his subsidized out of pocket premiums are around $250 a month, which they tell us will increase to $349 a month, even if the credits are extended. Here\u2019s the kicker: that amount would increase threefold to $1,131 a month if the credits are not extended. This is around 25% of our combined monthly income just for his personal health care insurance. We simply can\u2019t afford this, so like many others, because, believe me, we\u2019re not alone, we will likely have to make the tough choice to go uninsured,\u201d Leslie McNamara, Elected Commissioner of Three Rivers Hospital, whose husband is a small business owner in Brewster who relies on ACA tax credits to afford health care. \u201cUltimately, everyone suffers and everyone pays, and why? Because we can\u2019t balance the budget. Please find somewhere else to cut. Health care should be our number one priority\u2026 We claim to be a society of caring and compassionate people. Well, let\u2019s see President Trump and our elected legislators should care more about the affordability and needs of every citizen for health care in the United States, so I urge our politicians to join forces and give the American people a written guarantee to ensure affordable health care for all.\u201d\n\n\u201cRepublicans didn\u2019t see a problem in giving a massive tax break to people who don\u2019t need the money, but they\u2019re more than happy to shut down the government to force working people to lose their health insurance or make difficult choices about what they can afford in their lives,\u201d said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. \u201cThis is a very simple problem to solve if Republicans are willing to solve it, but apparently they\u2019re not, and the American people are going to burn with anger over this.\u201d\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 negotiating table to work out 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\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.\n\nSenator Murray\u2019s remarks, as delivered on today\u2019s press call, are below:\n\n\u201cThank you to our leader, Senator Schumer, for heading up this fight, and thank you to Protect Our Care for organizing this hearing. It is so important to hear about the personal impact that these tax credits have on people.\n\n\u201cRepublicans may have shut down the government to avoid talking about health care.\n\n\u201cBut you know what is not shut down? Open enrollment. It started in Idaho yesterday.\n\n\u201cThat means families across that state are staring down the cold hard cost of Republicans\u2019 health care sabotage.\n\n\u201cThere are 100,000 people in that state who rely on premium tax credits to afford their health care. And now, they are seeing these massive price hikes for their health care coverage because Republicans are refusing to act.\n\n\u201cThey are seeing premiums double, triple, even quadruple for some families.\n\n\u201cAnd Idaho is really the canary in the coalmine, because open enrollment starts nationwide in just two weeks.\n\n\u201cAnd then this nightmare that Republicans are trying to just ignore will be a reality for families across the country.\n\n\u201cSo, Republicans can\u2019t just stick their head in the sand. They can\u2019t just say we will worry about this later. Because families are facing this right now.\n\n\u201cNotices are in the mail at this very moment. Telling families: \u2018Hey, I\u2019m sorry, but your premium is going up by hundreds\u2014maybe even thousands of dollars\u2014a month.\u2019\n\n\u201cWindow shopping begins in Washington state next week and is already underway in several states.\n\n\u201cPeople are logging on right now to see if the news is true, and they are seeing some eye-popping price hikes. This is happening across the country, right now.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to many people back in Washington state who are seeing the numbers and they really have no idea how they are going to afford health care if Republicans let their premiums double.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to people in Idaho, and Montana, some of my Northwest neighbors, and I can tell you they are really worried.\n\n\u201cI would say this is hitting red states and blue states alike, but it\u2019s actually hitting red states especially hard!\n\n\u201cThree-fourths of the people who rely on the ACA premium tax credits are in red states. And the ten states that families will see the highest price increases are red states.\n\n\u201cSo Republicans who think they can just stick their heads in the sand and ignore the chaos they caused are fooling no one except themselves. And they are certainly not fooling the American people.\n\n\u201cRepublicans cannot just ignore this problem, put their hands over their ears and shout, \u2018later,\u2019 \u2018later,\u2019 \u2018later!\u2019\n\n\u201cWe have been warning them about this for months. It is too late for \u2018later!\u2019\n\n\u201cNotices are in the mail. Window shoppers are logging on right now. Open enrollment is starting.\n\n\u201cEvery second that Republicans continue to delay, this problem will get harder to solve.\n\n\u201cWe are here today to make sure they understand that. And to remind them that Democrats have always been at the table, ready to work on a solution. We want to reopen the government and address this health care crisis.\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/senators-murray-and-schumer-americans-who-rely-on-aca-tax-credits-call-on-republicans-to-prevent-premiums-from-skyrocketing-for-millions/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.267402596771717, "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"}