Watch the full interview HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen joined CNN Newsroom and spoke with Boris Sanchez to blast Washington Republicans for celebrating at the White House while they have shut down the government and refused to take action to prevent a spike in health care costs. Senator Rosen discussed the need to take action to expand the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) enhanced premium tax credit and keep health care affordable for families. A recent analysis by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation showed that health care premiums for hardworking families would more than double if the ACA enhanced premium tax credits are not extended this year. In Nevada, nearly 95,000 people directly benefit from these tax credits.
Excerpt from the interview:
Senator Rosen: “While people are worrying, not getting a paycheck, grocery prices going up, health care going through the roof, [Republicans are] celebrating the ‘big, beautiful ballroom.’ So they’re over there in some gold plated lunch while people are suffering, prices are going up, and they’re not doing a damn thing. Oh, and maybe they signed the check for Kristi Noem’s two – count them two – airplanes that she doesn’t need. She [can] come fly southwest with me. I’ll even take the middle seat. The pretzels are fantastic. They’re made in Nevada.
Boris Sanchez: “I’m curious to get your thoughts on the President talking for years about his desire to repeal and replace Obamacare. It is something that he has tried unsuccessfully to do in the past. Don’t you think it’s going to be an uphill battle to get him to extend subsidies for it, given that it is a piece of legislation that he is pretty consistently against?
Senator Rosen: “Well, what I want to say is this: when I’m about to quote Marjorie Taylor Greene and say that she’s absolutely correct, when she saw her kids insurance premiums going up by double and she said ‘this isn’t sustainable and reasonable. Responsible people everywhere have to get together to fix this.’ You know that the tide has shifted.
“Over the course of so many years, more and more people get insurance coverage, whether they use the tax credits or not. We’ve changed so many things: You can’t be kicked off for preexisting conditions and the like. You can’t just rip health care away from people. It is the number one thing people call into my office about. And so people are worried they’re going, you know, I live in Las Vegas, right outside Las Vegas. And we like to say we love when people come and roll the dice. But nobody should be rolling the dice to not get their health care. I literally had people say, ‘I’ll just roll the dice and hope I don’t get sick.’ That’s not the kind of rolling the dice we want.
“And so, to be clear, President Trump with Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson, [and] all the other Republicans have to come to their senses because I can’t imagine that their constituents in their states have any less worries or anxieties about their health care than the folks in Nevada. So, I know my ‘why.’ Everyone is asking me to please help them get insurance coverage. That’s all they’re asking. I want insurance coverage. I want to go to the doctor and get my medicine. People are going to die if they don’t.”
Senator Rosen recently hosted a virtual roundtable with Nevadans who rely on the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits to afford their health coverage. Earlier this year, Senator Rosen helped introduce the Health Care Affordability Act to make the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits permanent — ensuring that Nevada families can continue to afford coverage. She also traveled up and down the state, meeting with hospital staff to discuss Washington Republicans’ extreme cuts to Medicaid and her legislation to reverse these cuts.
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