{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-raises-alarm-on-extending-aca-tax-credits-ahead-of-open-enrollment/", "Welch Discusses Importance of Protecting Health Care Access as Open Enrollment Nears", "2025-10-29", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-release/page/", "scraper", "Welch Joined Wyden and health care advocates for a press conference on lowering health care costs\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 In remarks from the Senate floor tonight, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, raised the alarm about the need to extend the Affordable Care Act\u2019s (ACA) premium tax credits ahead of the start of Open Enrollment on Saturday, November 1. Senator Welch highlighted concerns shared by Vermonters and urged Republicans to negotiate with Democrats, reopen the government, and help prevent millions of Americans from losing their health care.\n\n\u201cFolks across the country are going to get some bad news: without the tax credits that are in place now and are set to expire by the end of the year, their health care premiums are going to double, triple, and in some cases quadruple\u2014and even worse,\u201d said Senator Welch. \u201cWe\u2019ve been having this debate about a shutdown. But what we haven\u2019t been having is a negotiation about how to protect families from a rate shock that they can\u2019t afford. It means they\u2019re really going to lose health care.\n\n\u201cI urge us, and I urge the President, to act aggressively to resolve this. It will help folks whether they are in a red state, a blue state, whether they identify as a Republican, or a Democrat, or an Independent. It just doesn\u2019t matter. But we\u2019ve got a health care system that is too, too expensive, beyond reach, and is crippling to our small businesses, our farmers, and our families.\u201d\n\nWatch Senator Welch\u2019s speech below:\n\nWhen Open Enrollment begins on Saturday, 24 million Americans across the country will try to shop for health insurance that they can no longer afford. Without the ACA tax credits, a Vermont family of four making $130,000 a year that currently pays $1,195 a month for a baseline health care plan can expect to pay $3,035 a month for that same plan\u2014a $22,080 annual increase. A Vermont family of four making about $64,000 a year will pay 920% more.\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon, Senator Welch joined Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Protect Our Care, and a patient advocate for a press conference on the importance of extending ACA tax credits and lowering health care costs.\n\n\u201cThis is not a red-state, blue-state deal. This is not a Republican, Democratic deal. This is about families. It\u2019s about small businesses. It\u2019s about farmers wanting to have some minimal level of confidence that if they get sick, they\u2019ll be able to get care. If they get sick, they won\u2019t go broke. And we\u2019ve got a bad health care system in this country. A lot of places you can get the best quality care, but we spend the most and get the least, and this will make what is already an expensive system\u2014and a creaking system\u2014much worse,\u201d said Senator Welch at the press conference.\n\nThis Congress, Senator Welch has led the introduction of several bills to make health care more accessible and affordable for Vermonters, including the Strengthening Medicare and Reducing Taxpayer (SMART) Prices Act, Fair Prescription Drug Prices for Americans Act, End Price Gouging for Medications Act, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act, Protecting Pharmacies in Medicaid Act, Fair Funding for Rural Hospitals Act, and the Rural Hospital Support Act.\n\nSenator Welch\u2019s office will remain open throughout the shutdown to help Vermonters. Resources can be found on the Senator\u2019s website or by calling 802-863-2525. Learn more about Senator Welch\u2019s work by visiting his website or by following him on social media.\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.welch.senate.gov/welch-raises-alarm-on-extending-aca-tax-credits-ahead-of-open-enrollment/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5514891128987074, "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"}