[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 179 (Tuesday, October 28, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7788-S7789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, as everyone in this Chamber knows and 
everyone in our great Nation knows, we are in the midst of a healthcare 
crisis. Now, the word ``crisis'' probably is the most overused term in 
the political lexicon, but the American people know that this crisis is 
real and urgent because they know, if you don't have your health, you 
don't have anything. That old saying epitomizes the importance of 
healthcare when it affects our children, who can't get healthcare for 
themselves; our seniors, who also depend on others; and everyday 
Americans across the country, who are at their kitchen tables tonight 
or at their workplaces or are with their families, wondering: When will 
it happen? When will I get sick, not just with a virus or the common 
cold? When will there be a healthcare crisis for me?
  And it happens to everybody. Nobody is invincible. Everybody needs 
healthcare, and it should be regarded as a human right.
  We face an imminent and real and present crisis right now for 
millions of Americans who will no longer be able to afford healthcare 
insurance, beginning in days or weeks, because premiums are 
skyrocketing. They will rise by double or triple what they are now. 
Insurance companies are already raising premium rates. Americans are 
beginning a period of open enrollment. In Connecticut, it begins on 
November 1, when they will have to make choices--literally, in effect, 
writing checks to insurance companies and saying: I am going to afford 
this plan. But many Americans will find no plan affordable if we fail 
to provide for them an extension of the healthcare tax credit that has 
enabled them to afford health insurance up to now under a measure that 
we passed and the President signed.

  My Republican colleagues continue to ignore the needs and interests 
of the American people by blocking our efforts to fix this imminent, 
immediate crisis. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is 
out of town, the President is out of touch in Asia, and we are left 
with the clock ticking. Time is not on our side.
  Let's be very clear. Republicans control the House of 
Representatives, which hasn't shown up to work in over a month, but 
they continue to be paid; Republicans control the Senate; and maybe 
most importantly, the Republicans control the White House. This 
government shutdown is happening on President Trump's watch. It is on 
him. These skyrocketing healthcare costs are happening on his watch 
too.
  Instead of fighting for the American people, President Trump and 
Republicans have spent the past year seeking to strip millions of 
Americans of healthcare, food assistance, student loan support, and 
much more that is vital to their quality of life and, for many of them, 
their very survival.
  Democrats have been sounding the alarm over the ongoing threats to 
healthcare and the impact it will have on every American, but 
Republicans seemingly--I say ``seemingly''--refuse to listen. I think 
they are listening but are in denial because instead of working with 
Democrats to prevent Americans from being crushed by impending medical 
debt, Republicans have wasted valuable time blocking every single 
Democratic effort to lower costs for families.
  To be clear, if Republicans refuse to join Democrats in protecting 
the American people from massive increases in their healthcare costs, 
millions of people will suffer, and healthcare premiums will rise to 
incomprehensible levels.
  Just this week, Connecticut launched a window-shopping tool that 
allows residents to preview their healthcare options for next year. It 
allows consumers to see how costs compare to next year's costs. Very 
frankly, the options are preposterous.
  For example, a couple in their sixties living in Hartford, CT--our 
capital--making $100,000 a year will go from paying $260.38 to 
$2,614.60. That is for the same plan. It is an Anthem plan. They are 
going from the cost this year of $260.83 to, next year, $2,614.60. By 
the way, they are getting nothing more. It is the same plan. There is 
no additional coverage, and they are paying over $2,500 more each 
month.
  It is, in effect, a Republican healthcare tax on a family in their 
sixties making $100,000 a year--that is a middle-class family--in 
Hartford, CT.
  Let me give you another example. A family of four living in Hartford 
and making $159,767, roughly $160,000 a year--the average salary for a 
family of four in our State--would be forced to pay $1,159.52 more. 
They go from $796.65 this year to $1,956.17 next year. I don't know how 
they can afford it. The simple answer is, probably they can't. And that 
family will be at risk of financial catastrophe without healthcare 
insurance coverage.
  Already--let me just emphasize, already--healthcare debt is the major 
cause of bankruptcy in this country. It hurts our whole economy. So 
even if you don't care about a family of four living in Hartford or a 
couple in their sixties, even if the humanitarian impacts are 
impervious to you, think about the economic consequences. Think about 
your pocketbook, not theirs. Bankruptcy will increase along with the 
suffering.
  These price hikes, the taxes on healthcare, are absolutely absurd and 
abhorrent. It is incomprehensible to expect any American enrolled in 
one of these plans to have the disposable income necessary to keep 
their coverage. This added cost is money that could be used to cover 
weeks' worth of groceries, heat, rent, or mortgage.
  This added cost is money that many individuals and families simply 
don't have. They won't pay these prices because they simply cannot. 
Instead, many will be forced to go without health insurance, which 
raises the costs for everyone.

[[Page S7789]]

  Very bluntly, these rates will not just impact people enrolled in the 
ACA marketplace. If Republicans have their way, the entire healthcare 
system will feel the effects, and every individual trying to receive 
care, regardless of what kind of insurance they have, will be impacted. 
The ripple effect is coming to you. Even if you don't have an ACA plan, 
even if you are paying some part of your employer's insurance cost, 
this rising tide will truly lift everybody's boat in terms of costs.
  Republicans are making Connecticut families and Americans across the 
country choose between affordable healthcare or putting food on the 
table or heating their homes this winter or buying clothes for their 
kid. It is cruel. It is unnecessary. It will undoubtedly cost people 
their health and their lives.
  Open enrollment is less than 5 days away now in Connecticut. Time is 
not on our side. We have no time to waste. If you don't feel this sense 
of urgency, listen to your constituents.
  I choose to stand with them--with small business owners, with working 
families, with everyday Americans who will be crushed by these costs, 
and their futures will be crippled--at least financially.
  It is paramount in my mind that Republican colleagues listen to those 
constituents, to those small business owners, to those families and 
millions of Americans and healthcare professionals who have been 
speaking truth to power.
  This government shutdown can end tonight if we choose the path 
forward to guarantee an extension of the healthcare tax credits and add 
it to the government funding measure that is now before this body.
  The House of Representatives needs to come back to do its job. 
President Trump will come back from Asia. The American people deserve a 
real solution that preserves Americans' healthcare.
  I yield the floor.

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