[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8633-S8635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HEALTHCARE
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, today, I rise in support of the
legislation that is going to be considered here on the Senate floor
tomorrow to extend the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits
so that we can lower the healthcare costs for 22 million Americans.
Those Americans get that protection today. If the Republicans do not
vote for that protection to be continued tomorrow, then 22 million
Americans and their families are going to see a dramatic rise in their
healthcare bills beginning the end of this year. This threat is looming
over those families. It is 22 million Americans.
By the way, it is 10 million Americans who either own small
businesses or work in small businesses. So we are talking about Main
Street America. Ten million of the 22 million people actually work for
small businesses in America, so for them, this is going to be a bill
that they are going to be receiving in the mail. And we are talking
Main Street America. We are talking Republicans turning Main Street
into ``Pain Street'' for 10 million small business employees and
owners.
Tomorrow is the Republicans' opportunity not to see this dramatic
rise, this skyrocketing price, be passed on to them. It is going to be
devastating to them. These are not rich people, these small business
workers and owners. They go week to week. They go month to month. These
aren't big businesspeople; these are small businesses. They are Main
Street people, and they are about to get crushed. That is the vote that
the Republicans are going to cast tomorrow.
It is going to lead to a $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, $5,000,
$10,000 a year increase in the premiums they have to pay for the
coverage for their families. It is going to be devastating to those
families.
The very fact that President Trump and the Republicans are only just
allowing a vote on continuing these critical tax credits just 2 weeks
before all these families have to make their decision--it is only 2
weeks to go, and then they have to send the check in to get the
coverage for January 1. So the Republicans have waited until 2 weeks
left to go.
In Massachusetts, it is December 23. That is the last day, and people
have to send in the check to cover. It is 2 days before Christmas. Can
you imagine 22 million families all trying to figure out how they are
going to write that check for a dramatic increase in their healthcare 2
days before Christmas? That is what the Republicans are setting up
across our country--22 million people who are all going to have this
financial bomb go off on their kitchen tables. It is going to make it
harder to buy presents. It is going to make it harder for these
families actually to plan for 2026. And it is all because these
Republicans aren't willing to do it.
Honestly, it just shows how unserious the Republicans are about
addressing affordability for families at the kitchen table. The cost of
living in this country is skyrocketing. And it is not just the
healthcare bill for these 22 million people; healthcare across the
country is skyrocketing--just skyrocketing. Instead of trying to deal
with it, the Republicans are doing nothing--nothing--to solve the
problem.
It is no surprise because the Republicans have harbored an ancient
animosity toward all these Federal healthcare programs. The Republicans
voted no on Social Security in 1935. They voted no on Medicare. They
voted no Medicaid. They voted no on the Affordable Care Act. Today,
they are trying to destroy the vaccine regime we have in our country.
They are withholding by the billions research on cancer, Alzheimer's,
diabetes, Parkinson's, and other diseases that need more research. They
are pulling back the funding for that. That is what they are leaving as
a legacy for families this Christmas in our country. Ultimately, health
is the first wealth. That is what Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great
Massachusetts poet, said. That is what the Republicans are now trying
to loot on behalf of their billionaire buddies, because all the money
is just going to be shuffled off to billionaires.
So this is without question just a continuation of their efforts.
They tried to stop Medicare. They tried to stop Social Security. They
tried and they failed to kill the Affordable Care Act. Now they are
trying to eliminate the tax credits that help people afford their
health insurance.
In Massachusetts, for example, it is 60,000 small businesses and
their owners who rely on these tax credits to afford health insurance
for themselves and their families.
Here is what Trump says. Trump says affordability is a ``hoax.'' He
is saying to these families: What you are now saying is a hoax.
He has called affordability a ``con job.'' But the only hoax, the
only con job is Trump and the Republicans repeatedly promising a
cheaper alternative to the Affordable Care Act and instead offering
nothing--absolutely nothing. That is where they have been.
The Affordable Care Act went on the books in 2010. For 15 years, they
have been promising that they would have an alternative.
There used to be a television show, ``Perry Mason,'' and he was a
lawyer. He always had very difficult cases, and in the final 5 minutes
of each one of the shows, Della Street, his great associate, would show
up with the critical evidence that would then solve the case.
Well, it has been 15 years, and we have been waiting for the
Republican Della Street to show up with the paper, with the document
that is going to solve this healthcare crisis that the Republicans,
with crocodile tears, year after year say that they care so much about.
And they are not going to show up with a plan.
There is a great play, ``Waiting for Godot.'' Of course, at the end
of ``Waiting for Godot,'' Godot never shows up. And this healthcare
solution that the Republicans have been promising for 15 years--it is
not going to show up tomorrow. As a result, 22 million Americans are
going to lose their coverage. They are going to have to pay
exorbitantly higher prices for their healthcare coverage than they have
to pay today.
So this week, Trump, in a self-grading exercise, graded his economy
an A+++++. That is five pluses that Donald Trump gave himself. But I
think
[[Page S8634]]
most Americans right now are giving him an F. Why? I will tell you
simply. The cost of groceries is up. The cost of electricity is way up.
The cost of housing is way up. The cost of healthcare, because of
Republicans, is way up, and they are even going to complicate it more
tomorrow.
They are going to have their own scarlet letter for the next year
that they are going to have to walk around with--an ``H'' for
healthcare--on their forehead, because they are just going to be
branding themselves, as opposed to providing the healthcare for all
these hard-working families across our country.
And when the backbone of our economy, small businesses, can no longer
afford their premiums, they will make tough decisions about hiring,
about growing, or even closing their doors for good--turning, again,
Main Streets all across our country into ``Pain Streets.'' And it is
all going to be in the mail in just the next 2 weeks, right before
Christmas.
To me, it is almost unimaginable. It takes Scrooge, and it gives a
whole new meaning to it in terms of what they are about to deliver as
coal in the stockings of 22 million American families. They were
expecting a lot more, and that is not what they are about to receive.
And so despite the fact that these costs are going up under the Trump
administration, despite the fact that they plundered a trillion dollars
from Medicaid, just back in July, to give a tax break to CEO
billionaires, despite the fact that reckless tariffs are decimating our
small businesses to the tune of $38 billion a year, somehow, OMB
Director Russell Vought wants to fund the Department of Defense at more
than $1 trillion. Pete Hegseth declared it would be the Defense
Department's first trillion-dollar budget.
They are so proud. More nuclear weapons, more capacity just to blow
up the whole world. They are very proud of that. They are very proud of
the trillion dollars that they are now stealing from Medicaid, from the
healthcare of every family that needs it. They are very proud of the
tax breaks by the trillions that they are giving to millionaires and
billionaires in our country.
But when it comes to just making sure people in our country, this
Christmas, don't see a dramatic spike in the price of healthcare for
them and their families, they are going: Sorry, I don't have any money.
And there is good reason. They are giving it to the Defense
Department. They are giving it to millionaires and billionaires. Of
course, they don't have any money.
Somebody has to pay for it, and the bill is going to be one that 22
million American families write to get their healthcare coverage for
January 1, and it is going to be a skyrocketingly higher number than it
was just this week.
So Donald Trump and his congressional Republicans, they just can't
seem to find anything to help working families and grandma and grandpa,
but they can find it for the billionaires. They can find it for the
defense contractors.
And you want to talk about waste and fraud. Just look at the defense
budget. You just look at it. It is just loaded with waste and fraud,
but they aren't going to look there.
They are looking at the pockets of ordinary families in our country,
and they are going to tip them upside down and shake the money out of
their pockets, 2 days before Christmas, and make them pay more money in
order to get the health coverage that their families need.
So the Republicans just care more about ``wealthcare'' than they do
about healthcare. They care more about caring for the wealth of the
richest than they do about the healthcare for every family in our
country.
And at every opportunity, Republicans are looting healthcare from
families and small businesses in order to pay for tax breaks for people
who already have too much. They are robbing the American people, and
they are asking the Democrats to drive the getaway car--that we should
be voting to take away healthcare from ordinary families to pay for
these tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.
But let me just say right now, the Democrats refuse to be accomplices
to this healthcare crime of destroying Americans' lives and their
livelihoods and their health.
The consequences are real, and they are happening right now. In the
face of skyrocketing premiums, 10,000 people in Massachusetts have
already dropped their affordable care coverage for next year. That is
unbelievable. And there are going to be tens of thousands more who will
be following them. That is just in Massachusetts. That is already
double the number of residents who typically drop coverage in a year.
And in Massachusetts, they have 2 more weeks to figure out whether or
not they can afford this healthcare coverage next year, and the same
thing is going to be true in 49 other States in our country and in the
District of Columbia.
They are going to have to decide if they are going to keep their
coverage at all, and for those who do keep it, it is going to
skyrocket. And we don't know yet the final number of how many people
are trading their good insurance for junk plans that have cheaper
premiums but also have unaffordable deductibles. But we do know that
working families will suffer while billionaires rake in the dough with
great healthcare. You never have to worry about the billionaires and
their healthcare. They are, in fact, giving money to build new wings on
hospitals--they have so much money--to make sure they and their
families get the care they need at that hospital.
But it is going to be unaffordable for the families who are going to
be left behind right now. Those families are going to be heading for
emergency rooms. They are not going to be getting the kind of help that
they need with their family's healthcare.
So Trump told families, last night, they should ``give up pencils''
to deal with his affordability crisis, but Americans just can't give up
health insurance when these tax credits expire.
Who is going to suffer from Republicans' dogged opposition to
lowering healthcare prices?
I am just going to tell you a few brief stories in Massachusetts--
people like Jeffrey. Let me tell you who he is. He is a small business
owner who is seeing his premiums increase by $8,400 next year. His wife
died of cancer a decade ago, and by the time she passed, his family's
medical bills had topped $1 million. They would have been crippled by
debt without the affordable care insurance policy, which they were able
to receive through the ACA plan. But his bill is now going up $8,400.
Jeffrey doesn't have that money.
Second is people like a couple out in Western Massachusetts, whose
annual premium is doubling, from $15,000 a year to $30,000 a year. They
are going to owe $1,000 more a month for their health insurance, which
is going to be bigger than their mortgage. Do you hear what I am
saying, Republicans?
For this couple, health insurance is going to double and be bigger
than their mortgage. Is that really what you want to say to families
across our country, when we have a plan in place already that protects
them and gives them the healthcare which they need for their families?
I give you a third one, people like a small business owner in
Auburndale, whose premium is more than doubling to over $19,000 next
year, and she cannot afford what she calls a ``painful blow to my
budget.'' So she is just going to opt for a cheaper plan with less
healthcare coverage for herself. She shouldn't have to make that
choice. We already have a plan in place that protects her. She
shouldn't have to go down in the amount of protection which she is
receiving.
And then we go to Jeff. Jeff lives in Natick, and Jeff has stage IV
lung cancer. And Jeff right now pays $30,000 a year to get the drugs
which he needs. Do you know where his bill is going to, as of December
31, in just 3 more weeks? I am going to give you a second to think
about it.
His bill is going to $300,000 a year, and Jeff does not have $300,000
a year for his stage IV lung cancer drugs.
By the way, even as I am telling these stories, there are 22 million
of these stories that are all about to unfold a couple of days before
Christmas, when people have to figure out how big that new check is
that they have to write to get the coverage which they need.
I will just tell you one final story, which is Laurie. She is from
Truro. The premium for her and her husband is
[[Page S8635]]
going from $6,000 a year up to $26,000 a year. And Laurie and her
husband can't get coverage through an employer and are a few years from
qualifying for Medicare. So they are in kind of a black hole. They are
going to be left out in no man and woman's land, OK. That is where they
are going to be.
And they are going without insurance next year. That is the decision
they are making. And they are hoping--they are hoping with fingers
crossed--that neither one of them is going to have an emergency next
year.
Well, that is the Republican plan for Laurie and her husband: Just
cross your fingers. Pray that no healthcare catastrophe hits your
family for a year--because they cannot afford $26,000 a year, up from
$6,000 a year.
So the Republicans are asking Americans to trade their health
insurance for hope, but hope is not a healthcare strategy. The only
thing that gives hope to families is the actions that are taken to
ensure that they have access to the healthcare which they need, and
they are not going to take any action on the Republican side.
And so Laurie and her husband are just going to forgo health
insurance next year because their $26,000 a year is just not affordable
for them.
So I will just tell you, in conclusion, what Democrats are going to
offer tomorrow. It is going to be a simple, straightforward extension
of the healthcare tax credits these families depend on, so that
families like this don't have to rely on hope alone.
And my Republican colleagues, they are going to have a different
plan. Instead of lowering people's premiums, they are going to give
everyone $1,000 for their healthcare expenses. And that sounds nice in
theory, but you already heard the stories of the people who are, right
now, trying to figure out what they are going to do on December 23,
because they actually are not going to be allowed to use that money--
the $1,000--to pay for their health insurance premiums. They actually
are not going to be able to use it for that purpose.
So how is this Republican so-called healthcare plan going to help
someone who works in a hardware store, who owes $12,000 a year in
premiums, and has a $7,500 deductible? How does that $1,000 help anyone
whose premiums will be $19,000 next year? How does $1,000 cover
$19,000, which would have been covered? How does that $1,000 help a
senior couple paying more for their insurance than for their mortgage?
That is not a healthcare plan. That is a ``they don't care'' plan,
and that is what the Republicans are offering them--a Republican ``we
don't care'' plan for 22 million American families, 2 days before
Christmas. That is their plan.
Their ``Make America Sick'' agenda does nothing to help the 337,000
residents of Massachusetts who are going to be confronting skyrocketing
premiums next year--22 million people across the whole country. The
only people that the Republicans' plan will help are the millionaires
and billionaires who already have the money to afford their premiums,
and, yes, their donations to Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans to
protect those billionaire tax breaks.
That is their plan. The ticking healthcare timebomb that Republicans
are setting off, that Democrats have been warning about all year long,
is about to go off. In Massachusetts, you have got to write the check
by December 23, and that check has to be written all across our country
to make sure you are covered on January 1.
And this is as families are trying to get ready for their Christmas
celebrations. There won't be any celebration in those homes. They are
going to be trying to figure out how to balance their budgets. They are
going to be trying to figure out how to deal with all that money that
is now going to be spent for that healthcare that they did not have to
spend this year.
So this is going to be an absolute disaster for families, and it is
avoidable. And the Republicans can avoid it, but, instead, Trump and
the MAGA Republicans have traded away healthcare for tax breaks for
corporations. And it is the cruelty--the absolute cruelty--- of the
Trump administration, which knows no limits. And just in time for the
Christmas holidays, ``President Grinch'' is stealing medication from
dad, inhalers for grandma, insulin for children, toys right out from
underneath the tree.
So it is absolutely essential that we vote to extend the Affordable
Care Act premium tax credits. We must listen to the American people who
are begging us to help lower costs. Tomorrow, we can do that on the
Senate floor.
I implore the Republicans to vote to extend these tax benefits for 22
million American families. Please do it for them.
This is going to be terrifying for 22 million people. It is going to
be a terrifying Christmas for these families, and it is going to be a
terrifying reality next year, when they have lost their health
insurance or they cannot afford their health insurance unless they do
so at the expense of all the other things which their families need.
So we have to vote to avert this crisis. We need some Republicans to
join us--not many, but just enough with a conscience this Christmas to
make sure that they are protected.
I just close, once again, by urging my colleagues to vote yea on our
bill to protect those 22 million families.
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