Sen. Coons: “I frankly care less about who gets the blame than I do about who gets hurt. Who's going to get hurt is hundreds of millions of Americans.”

Sen. Coons: “Republicans have been in control in Congress since the beginning of the year and for eight months held no hearings how to address the Affordable Care Act.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) yesterday joined Meet the Press Daily with Katy Tur to discuss President Trump’s recent efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. 

“The president saying in the clip you just ran that Obamacare is dead, it's gone, isn't in fact true. Republicans have failed to repeal it. They don't have a real plan to replace it. And in the meantime, Democrats are very eager to find a way to work across the aisle with Republican senators to stabilize and advance the goal that we all have of more affordable, quality health care for more Americans.” 

“I think it's clear that the president's actions are destabilizing what was a fairly successful program to extend health insurance to 20 million Americans and to improve the quality of insurance for 150 million Americans who get their insurance through their employer. I frankly care less about who gets the blame than I do about who gets hurt. Who's going to get hurt is hundreds of millions of Americans.”

Full audio and video available here.

Excerpts from the interview:

Senator Coons on health care: Well, what would be helpful is if the president would actually get out of the way and allow the Senate to do its work. Both Senators Murray and Alexander, Democrat and Republican, who are the chair and ranking member of the Health Committee here were making progress towards a bipartisan compromise on strengthening the Affordable Care Act and extending affordable, quality health insurance to more Americans, but that got shut down as Republicans tried one last time to repeal and replace Obamacare which failed. The president saying in the clip you just ran that Obamacare is dead, it's gone, isn't in fact true. Republicans have failed to repeal it. They don't have a real plan to replace it. And in the meantime, Democrats are very eager to find a way to work across the aisle with Republican senators to stabilize and advance the goal that we all have of more affordable, quality health care for more Americans. 

More on health care:  Well, this is the same thing that he's doing in the Iran deal. He's sort of throwing a grenade in our lap and saying, here, toss this around a while and let’s see if you can make something better with it. In my view, leadership would come to us saying, I will accept any package that operates within this framework rather than simply cutting it off, creating more chaos in insurance markets, raising rates for millions of Americans, and then hoping that maybe somehow Congress will fix the resulting mess.  

Senator Coons on whether the president is trying to force an agreement on health care: Katy, think about the human cost of what you're describing. Let's see if we can't cause more Americans to lose access to health care and see if their increased suffering, loss of access to opioid and heroin treatment, loss of access to mental health care, let’s see if that human suffering inspires better action. I’ll remind you, it's October. Republicans have been in control in Congress since the beginning of the year and for eight months held no hearings how to address the Affordable Care Act. That started after the failure of their dramatic attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in August. So, in September, Senators Alexander and Murray began working in earnest. They had a series of very promising bipartisan hearings and they made progress up and until they had the cord pulled when they attempted to repeal the Affordable Care act Again last month. They've only had a few weeks of bipartisan work here to try to address some of the challenges and flaws with the Affordable Care Act. Give it a few months, I do think we would get a strong bipartisan deal. 

More on health care: Well, I'll tell what you the CEO of the insurance company that provides the Affordable Care Act exchange insurance in Delaware told me: there's going to be a 30% increase in rates this year for those individuals who get their insurance through that marketplace. Half of that increase is because of the instability caused by not knowing what the president's going to do. Whether he'll continue to enforce the law, whether he might abruptly, as he just has done, pull back on these so-called CSR payments. I think it's clear that the president's actions are destabilizing what was a fairly successful program to extend health insurance to 20 million Americans and to improve the quality of insurance for 150 million Americans who get their insurance through their employer. I frankly care less about who gets the blame than I do about who gets hurt. Who's going to get hurt is hundreds of millions of Americans. 

###