Washington, D.C. — Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement in reaction to today’s Senate HELP Committee hearing on the health care marketplace:
“First and foremost, today’s hearing was a notable and welcome departure from the secretive, partisan and ultimately failed repeal effort which President Trump and Senate and House Republicans pursued for the first half of this year,” said Woodhouse. “The mere fact that these hearings are occurring and that bipartisan approaches to market stabilization are being discussed should send a strong signal to the partisan repeal holdouts that it is time to set aside that approach and instead work together to ensure more and more Americans have access to reliable, affordable care. It should also send an unmistakable signal to President Trump that his strategy to sabotage the law is wrong headed and faces bipartisan opposition.
“Substantively, there was broad agreement that Congress must ensure that cost sharing reduction payments continue to be made to lower out of pocket costs for millions of low-income Americans. Every insurance commissioner who testified agreed that ensuring these payments are made must be part of any stabilization plan and nearly all Senators on the panel agreed with that notion. As we have said before, these payments are an essential feature of the health care law, President Trump has been wrong to sow uncertainty in the market by threatening not to pay them and ensuring they continue is among the most important features of any stabilization bill. That there was broad agreement by the panel and the witnesses on the importance of these payments to make health care more affordable for millions of Americans was a welcome sign to say the least.”