{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-urges-republicans-to-support-legislation-extending-aca-tax-credits-and-open-enrollment-the-answer-to-dealing-with-the-cost-of-health-care-is-not-to-take-away-insurance/", "Welch Urges Republicans to Support Legislation Extending ACA Tax Credits and Open Enrollment: \u201cThe answer to dealing with the cost of health care is not to take away insurance.\u201d", "2025-11-06", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-release/page/", "scraper", "Republicans block legislation to fund Affordable Care Act premium tax credits until 2028, extend Open Enrollment until May 2026\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today urged the Senate to pass his bill that would extend funding for Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits by three years and extend nationwide Open Enrollment. In his remarks, Senator Welch highlighted how uninsured rates in states like Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina will skyrocket if Republicans fail to help Democrats extend ACA premium tax credits.\n\nThe bill, which would fund ACA premium tax credits until 2028 and extend the current Open Enrollment season to May 1, 2026, was blocked by Senate Republicans.\n\n\u201cI would love to get the government open, and I\u2019d love to be able to let folks know that the health care they had in 2025\u2014they\u2019ll be able to have in 2026. I\u2019d like the President to do what Presidents do\u2014and that\u2019s get the parties together in the room and negotiate an outcome that works for all of us,\u201d said Senator Welch. \u201cWe have real work to do on the cost side of health care. We really all have to take that on. But the approach to dealing with the high cost of health care can\u2019t be taking people\u2019s health care away. It has to be making the health care they have more affordable.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is an urgency to the moment, because the Open Enrollment now, in November, is here, and families have to make decisions. And this body is literally the only institution in the United States of America that has the ability; that has the authority; that has the power to provide a remedy to the families we all care about. So, that\u2019s my plea to my Republican colleagues.\u201d\n\nWatch Senator Welch\u2019s full remarks below:\n\nRead a key excerpt from Senator Welch\u2019s remarks:\n\n\u201cYou know, President Trump\u2026he\u2019s got enormous authority, and he\u2019s got enormous influence on the Republicans in the House and in the Senate. And it would be so good if he would come and sit down and figure out how to address this problem. The simplest way to do it is to extend the tax credits, and then all of us acknowledge that we have to address the cost of health care,\u201d said Senator Welch. \u201cI know in talking to many of my Republican colleagues, you\u2019re focused on costs. Totally fair. But the answer to dealing with the cost of health care is not to take away insurance. People still get sick.\u201d\n\n\u201cI do believe the one thing we cannot do in good conscience is allow these premium tax credits to expire when what that means is that the folks we care about\u2014who have no control themselves over what the cost of health care is, they\u2019re just on the receiving end\u2014that we\u2019ve got to extend those. That can bring us time to start addressing some of the concerns that my colleagues have about the cost of health care.\u201d\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\n\nOver 24 million Americans rely on the ACA\u2019s tax credits to afford health care. In Vermont, nearly 30,000 people rely on ACA tax credits to afford health care. Without 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\nRead and download the full text of the legislation here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "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-urges-republicans-to-support-legislation-extending-aca-tax-credits-and-open-enrollment-the-answer-to-dealing-with-the-cost-of-health-care-is-not-to-take-away-insurance/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8561739232391119, "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"}