'It Will Be A Death Sentence': Chris Van Hollen Reads Letters From Voters Decrying BBB Medicaid Cuts

6 months ago

During a speech to the Senate floor on Wednesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) read letters from his constituents who wrote to him about the Big Beautiful Bill.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, on this day 60 years ago, President Lyndon Bain Johnson signed the law that created

00:12Medicare and Medicaid, protecting the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of

00:20American families.

00:23Those were our predecessors here on the floor of the United States Senate, and they passed

00:27that bill by the overwhelming vote, at least by today's standards, of 68 to 21, with support

00:37from senators of both parties.

00:41And they did that because they understood how vital access to affordable health care is

00:47for all Americans.

00:50It was 15 years ago that Democrats and President Obama built on that legacy with the Affordable

01:00Care Act, which expanded Medicaid and delivered affordable health care to 45 million more Americans.

01:10Taken together, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act are three parts of one promise, a

01:20promise of health and a measure of economic security for seniors, for people with disabilities,

01:30for the most vulnerable Americans, and for Americans working hard paycheck to paycheck.

01:3860 years ago, one senator explained that the promise of Medicare and Medicaid meant this,

01:48and I quote,

01:49We do not intend to kick you out on the street.

01:55We are going to see you through.

01:57You are not going to become forgotten people.

02:02That's how one senator explained his vote to make sure we provided coverage under Medicare

02:09and Medicaid.

02:11Well, three weeks ago on the Senate floor, President Trump, with allies among the Republican senators,

02:23forgot about those people.

02:26Those people for whom that law was passed 60 years ago today.

02:32Because three weeks ago, right here on the Senate floor, Republicans called what Donald Trump

02:40calls the big, beautiful bill.

02:43Certainly is beautiful if you're a billionaire or a very wealthy person.

02:48For everybody else, it is an ugly betrayal.

02:53Because that bill passed about three weeks ago here on the Senate floor, slashed Medicaid.

03:01It cut into the Affordable Care Act.

03:04And combined cut over a trillion dollars in healthcare to fund tax breaks for billionaires

03:13and very wealthy people, taking healthcare coverage away from 10 million people, even more if you

03:22count the failure to extend the tax credits from the Affordable Care Act, which will expire

03:28at the end of this year.

03:29But 10 million on the terms of that bill alone, including nearly 246,000 of my fellow Marylanders.

03:39And as others have said, this will increase the cost of healthcare for everybody else, because

03:44it has a ripple effect throughout the insurance markets.

03:49When you start denying affordable healthcare to people on Medicaid, it puts upward pressure

03:56on premiums for everybody else as people go to get emergency care in hospitals and other

04:02places.

04:04Now, one of our Republican colleagues reportedly said to members of the Republican caucus, and

04:13I quote, I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid.

04:20But they'll get over it.

04:23That was the quote from a Republican senator.

04:28Mr. President, I can tell you from talking to my constituents and hearing from my colleagues

04:34all over the country, the American people are not going to get over it.

04:41Because of this bill that was passed three weeks ago, millions of Americans are going to

04:47lose their coverage, not because they're ineligible, but because Republicans purposely put up all sorts

04:54of bureaucratic hurdles to assessing those healthcare needs.

05:06That is increasing the costs and making it harder for people to access healthcare.

05:13And because of the failure to extend the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, a big part

05:19of those tax credits, which will expire at the end of this year, another 20 million Americans will

05:26see their premiums jump an average of $700 starting in January.

05:33And in my home state of Maryland, I mentioned that about 246,000 Marylanders are going to lose

05:38access access to healthcare because of the bill passed three weeks ago.

05:42And if we don't fix the issue of the expiring ACI tax credits by the end of the year, 70,000

05:51Marylanders could lose their healthcare coverage altogether.

05:56And they will see their premiums increase 68%.

06:01As others have discussed, rural hospitals were already in a very, very tough position across

06:08the country.

06:10And now hundreds could close.

06:13We're also seeing seniors put at greater risk in nursing homes because of cutbacks on

06:21the number of nursing staff that we normally require to make sure that people's elderly loved

06:27ones get the care they need and deserve.

06:31And these cuts will make families face impossible choices.

06:37And again, all of that, those cuts to Medicaid, the cuts to the Affordable Care Act, all for

06:42one purpose, to partially offset the cost of tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy people.

06:51And I say partially offset because even after cutting Medicaid, we're going to see an increase

06:57in the national debt of $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

07:02And that doesn't include additional interest on that debt.

07:07Now by cutting Medicaid so deeply, President Trump and Republicans are hurting people at

07:16every stage of life.

07:17You know, doctors take an oath to make sure that they help people at every stage of life,

07:23from cradle to grave.

07:25What happened three weeks ago is going to hurt people from cradle to grave.

07:32For many, it will be an early death sentence by denying access to important care, including

07:39preventative care.

07:41Officially, death certificates may read, died from late-stage cancer or because of an accident

07:50in a nursing home.

07:52But when you look behind that, you'll find that it's because that late-stage cancer wasn't

07:58detected earlier.

07:59Or because the nurse who should have been there at the nursing home wasn't there.

08:06And that will be a result of the bill that passed three weeks ago.

08:11Now, Mr. President, we believe that Donald Trump and Republican senators know better.

08:19We certainly know that they heard from their constituents about what would happen if this

08:24bill passed.

08:27Like many, I received letters from hundreds of constituents saying, please don't pass this

08:33bill.

08:34And I'm just going to read two short excerpts from a few of my constituents.

08:38Mary from Carroll County said, and I quote, my 52-year-old son is battling colon cancer and

08:47has to undergo chemotherapy every two weeks.

08:50He's been sick since 2019 and lost his business and cannot work.

08:55He lost everything and is living with me and on Medicaid.

09:01The chemo is enabling him to have one good week out of two.

09:07If they take his Medicaid away, it will be a death sentence.

09:13That's what Mary from Carroll County said.

09:16Frank from Cecil County said, please, please, in all caps, do not pass that budget.

09:23I have an autistic son who can only work part-time at a grocery store.

09:28He's on Medicaid.

09:29If he loses his insurance, we will not be able to cover him.

09:33Please do not let this happen.

09:35Please.

09:36Mr. President, I received these heart-wrenching letters from many constituents, and I know

09:45that all of us in this Senate did as well.

09:52Unfortunately, we saw over 50 senators look the other way in the face of all of those letters,

10:03and instead vote for a bill that cut healthcare for millions of Americans in order to partially

10:12finance tax cuts for the very wealthy.

10:15We cannot allow this to continue.

10:17In fact, we need to reverse it, and that is why I am joining others on the Schumer-Wyden

10:25bill to repeal the healthcare cuts that were enacted in that betrayal of the bill three

10:31weeks ago, and to permanently extend the Affordable Care Tax credits, which will otherwise expire

10:39at the end of this year.

10:41Again, 60 years ago, former senators passed the Medicare and Medicaid law.

10:51They enacted that, improving the lives of millions of Americans.

10:55Three weeks ago, we saw the opposite happen, the great betrayal.

11:00We need to make sure that we reverse the damage that was done, and then we need to build a

11:05better healthcare system for every American.

11:09That's what we should be doing at this point in our history.

11:14And build on the legacy of the senators 60 years ago, and build on the legacy of the Affordable

11:18Care Act.

11:19Mr. President, I yield the floor.

11:20Mr. President, I yield the floor.

'It Will Be A Death Sentence': Chris Van Hollen Reads Letters From Voters Decrying BBB Medicaid Cuts

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