10.15.25

Sen. Murray, Montana Leaders, Montanans Who Rely on ACA Tax Credits, Lay Out Cost of Republican Health Care Sabotage in Red States, Why Republicans Must Come to the Table to Prevent Costs from Skyrocketing

 

KFF: Most Republicans and MAGA Supporters Say Congress Should Extend the Enhanced ACA Tax Credits Set to Expire Next Year

 

ICYMI: Wall Street Journal - White House Senses Political Risk on Healthcare Despite Shutdown Bravado

 

Murray takes case directly to red states as new signs indicate Republicans are feeling the heat over their refusal to take action to prevent people’s costs from spiking

 

More than 67,000 Montanans rely on ACA tax credits; average annual premium increase is $1,092 if ACA tax credits expire

 

***DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE; video to come later***

  

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, held a virtual press conference on the 15th day of the Republican shutdown with Montana State Senator Cora Neumann, Montana Nurses Association CEO Vicky Byrd, and Montanans who rely on Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits to afford health care.

 

Right now, Democrats are fighting to save the ACA tax credits, which expire at the end of the year. Without them, 22 million Americans—mostly in red states—will see their health care costs skyrocket. Premiums will more than double, on average, for Americans who buy health care through the ACA exchanges, and these higher costs will push 4.2 million people off their health coverage over the next decade. In Montana, over 67,000 people rely on the ACA tax credits to afford their health insurance. Montanans with the tax credits pay an average monthly premium of $145, compared to $635 without the credit. A married couple in Helena, Montana could see their premiums rise by nearly $20,000 annually next year.

  

More than 3 in 4 people who get their health care through the ACA marketplaces—18.7 million out of 24.3 million—live in states President Trump won in 2024. The vast majority of Americans want Congress to renew the ACA tax credits, according to recent polling from KFF—including six in ten Republicans and a majority of Republicans who identify as MAGA. At the press conference, Senator Murray made her case directly to Montanans, explaining how inaction by their Republican members of Congress will force health care premiums to explode next year. She implored Republican leaders to come to the table as new signs indicate that Republicans are feeling that heat on their deeply unpopular position. In recent days, reporting has indicated that the White House is privately fretting about the issue, and President Trump signaled openness to cutting a deal. Meanwhile, some House Republicans have called out Republican leadership for causing the shutdown and failing to have a solution or plan to prevent people’s premiums from exploding.

 

“Right now, in many states, families are window shopping for health insurance online, and they’re logging in and seeing astronomical price hikes for the upcoming year, with the ACA tax credits disappearing. Right now, more than 67,000 people in Montana rely on the ACA tax credits to help them afford their health coverage. That is tens of thousands of people who will see their health care costs skyrocket if Republicans let these tax credits expire. Many families will see their costs for next year double, triple, or even quadruple. According to the Montana Nurses Association, a married couple in Helena could see premiums rise by nearly $20,000 a year. Do Republicans seriously think people can afford that? The reality is, they can’t,” said Senator Murray. “If the tax credits expire, thousands of people in Montana will be forced off their health coverage because they won’t be able to afford it anymore. We are talking about families with kids. We are talking about seniors, retirees who aren’t old enough for Medicare but desperately need health coverage. We are talking about countless farmers and ranchers, small business owners, and freelancers. If Republicans continue refusing to act, in a few weeks, families across Montana are going to come face to face with premiums they cannot afford.”

 

Senator Murray played a critical role in passing the enhanced premium tax credits in the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and extending them in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, and she has been fighting for months to make sure these important health care tax credits don’t expire, including cosponsoring multiple pieces of legislation—the Health Care Affordability Act and the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act—that would make them permanent.

  

“We’re talking about real lives that could be lost if we don’t extend these subsidies and protect our system… A household with $20,000 a year of increased costs in health care, that will put our health care system into a death spiral. I know first-hand from my work in health care, that when people lose coverage, they stop seeking care. When they stop seeking care, they go to the ER for care. When they go to the ER, the hospital, it’s this vicious cycle, the hospital eats the costs. The hospital can’t stay open because they have to… absorb those costs. The hospital shuts down, and the entire community suffers, the economy and the health,” said Montana State Senator Cora Neumann. “It really is our neighbors and our friends and our family. Over 50% of Montana small businesses rely on Marketplace and Medicaid for coverage for their employees, so these small businesses could also collapse without this coverage… I want to ask our federal delegation, who are you working for?... Montanans overwhelmingly, across the state, want to extend these subsidies. And especially Senator Daines and Senator Sheehy, they have the power to call on their fellow Senators to sit down and have a conversation, and they are just turning the other way. So, I’m just I’m sickened by this, because I know what this means to my constituents, how much they’re already struggling to cover their health care costs. And I’m asking our delegation to answer to your constituents, not to your Republican bosses in Washington, because your bosses are the people of Montana.”

  

“Right now, we’re fighting to protect the ACA premium tax credits. This serves as a lifeline for our rural communities, especially our farmers, our ranchers, our small businesses owners, but also their families. These subsidies just don’t help people afford coverage, they keep our hospitals open. When a farmer has insurance and comes in for care, this brings critical revenue that allows rural hospitals to stay afloat, pay the nurses, the providers, all the staff who care for our communities every day. The stakes couldn’t be higher… The vast majority of our rural families, many living miles from the nearest clinic or emergency room, depend on this support to stay insured and stay healthy. If Congress doesn’t act, these consequences will be devastating for Montanans. As you heard, upwards of 60,000 or more of them rely on these credits,” said Vicky Byrd, CEO of the Montana Nurses Association. “When health care disappears, so does the stability of our rural life. That’s just a bridge too far. These are not just numbers. These are real people, hardworking Montanans who don’t have lobbyists in Washington, but count on all of us to fight for all of them. The human cost of delayed care or denied care is real. Without subsidies, the ER becomes the only option—patients arrive sicker, more fragile and harder to save, often with conditions that could have been prevented or treated earlier… We must put patients above profits and fight for dignity, opportunity and respect. If these credits expire, dozens of Montana rural hospitals and clinics will feel this inner strain. We must extend them or make them permanent, because in Montana and in rural America, these communities look out for each other.”

  

“I was not expecting this going into retirement, you know, funding that much. I knew Trump might make some changes. I knew the GOP might make some changes, but I didn’t think they would do anything this dumb. I’m a middle-class person. I’m a former small business owner, retired. The GOP is supposed to be representing people like me, but they’re throwing me under the bus, and they’re doing it for a really dumb reason. I think if they really sat down and talked to other people, they would realize that this is a big mistake not extending these enhanced premium tax credits,” said Bob Gregoire, a Montanan from Bozeman who relies on ACA tax credits to afford health care.

 

Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered on today’s press call, are below:

  

“Thank you all for joining me. I’m so glad we could have this discussion today. 

 

“Because President Trump and Republican lawmakers have been desperate to ignore the fact that health care premiums are about to skyrocket for millions of Americans, all because of their own refusal to act.

 

“Across the country, premiums are going to more than double for millions of families, unless Congress saves the tax credits that help people afford insurance on the ACA exchanges.

 

“In Montana, that means the overwhelming majority of people who buy health insurance through the ACA marketplace are about to see a huge spike in their health care costs.

 

“But Republicans don’t want to talk about it. And they have refused to do anything about it. In fact, Republicans have chosen to shut down the government rather than work with Democrats on a solution to stop this from happening.

 

“So, here’s my feeling on this: if Republicans don’t want to level with their own constituents about what is at stake, I am happy to do it. Because Republicans may well be able to shut down the government, but they cannot shut down the debate, and they cannot shut out the voices of families who are facing the harsh reality of their inaction.

 

“Now, when Republican leaders here in D.C. have been asked about addressing this urgent problem, the only word they seem to know is ‘later.’ But there is no ‘later.’ Open enrollment starts on November 1st—that’s less than a month away!

 

“Right now, in many states, families are window shopping for health insurance online, and they’re logging in and seeing astronomical price hikes for the upcoming year, with the ACA tax credits disappearing.

 

“Right now, more than 67,000 people in Montana rely on the ACA tax credits to help them afford their health care coverage. That is tens of thousands of people who will see their health care costs skyrocket if Republicans let these tax credits expire.

 

“Many families will see their costs for next year double, triple, or even quadruple. According to the Montana Nurses Association, a married couple in Helena could see premiums rise by nearly $20,000 a year.

 

“Do Republicans seriously think people can afford that? The reality is, they can’t.

 

“If the tax credits expire, thousands of people in Montana will be forced off their health coverage because they won’t be able to afford it anymore.

  

“We are talking about families with kids. We are talking about seniors, retirees who aren’t old enough for Medicare but desperately need health coverage. We are talking about countless farmers and ranchers, small business owners, and freelancers.

 

“If Republicans continue refusing to act, in a few weeks, families across Montana are going to come face to face with premiums they cannot afford.

 

“People are going to go online to buy health coverage, take a look at the sky-high prices on the marketplace—price hikes Republicans refused to stop—and say, ‘What am I going to do?’

 

“And they are going to ask, ‘Why aren’t the people who represent me talking about this?’ ‘Why did they refuse to lift a finger to stop this?’

 

“So that’s my warning to my Republican colleagues who are trying to dodge even sitting down to talk about health care right now. This issue is not going to magically disappear. It is only going to become more and more real for the people you represent.

 

“Democrats are fighting to save these tax credits and prevent your health care costs from exploding next year. Democrats are pushing to reopen the government. But we need Republicans to finally come to the table and negotiate to hammer out a solution.

 

“And Montana? Your lawmakers need to hear from you.

 

“So I’m going to keep lifting up the voices Republicans are struggling to hear with their heads in the sand. I’m going to keep making sure the problem is plain as day.

 

“And I’m going to keep letting my Republican colleagues know: I am at the table and more than ready to get working on a solution.

 

“The clock is ticking. Open enrollment is weeks away. And it’s past time Republicans sit down and start working with us.”

 

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