Calling on Republicans to reverse their cuts that kick 15M Americans off of their health insurance.

health care providers for joining us. It's so important because these folks know better than anybody else about what skyrocketing health care costs mean to millions of Americans. Let's put it succinctly. Because of these vicious, drastic cutbacks, millions will lose their health care altogether. Tens of millions will pay thousands and tens of thousands more for health care, and 51,000 people will die in the next year because they won't have health care. Donald Trump and his Republicans who want to use this money, use the money from health care, which Americans have always prized and treasured, to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. That's why they're so adamant. The billionaires have a stranglehold over the Trump administration and over the Republicans in the Senate and the House. These are not just numbers on a chart. I don't know if we have, no, we don't have a chart here. But these are not just numbers on any chart. They're real. This Friday, as window shopping begins, as window shopping occurs, window shopping starts today, tens of millions of American families are going to gather around the kitchen table and say, what are we going to do? We can't afford an extra $10,000 or $20,000 a year. But we can't go without health care. What if our kid or our partner gets sick and there's no doctor? Or what if we just have to cut back so badly on our health care that we have to go to a doctor 100 miles away or a hospital 200 miles away? What are we going to do? This is not just an ordinary conversation people will have. This is just frightening, devastating. It's like you'll walk around with people who experience this will walk around with a hole in the pit of their stomachs and say, what are we going to do? And today, we're only three days from open enrollment, as you know. Window shopping starts today. People are for the first time logging in to see what they're going to pay. And it's going to be devastating. Let me just give you a few little examples. We have them for every, Monica, we have numbers for everybody on the states? You've got 31 states today. Okay. We'll get you that information. In Florida, a 55-year-old couple making $80,000 a year could be looking at a nearly $4,000 a month health care bill, a $50,000 increase. You're making $80,000 a year. It doesn't mean you're poor. But how are you going to pay $50,000? It's half their salary. I've been hearing from New Yorkers from one end of my state to the other. We obviously have a big urban population with many poor people. We have a large rural population. We have the third largest rural population in America. But from one end of the state to the other, we're hearing how frightened people are, how angry people are, how devastated people are about what is happening. In upstate New York, the average family who used to pay $280 a month is now about to pay $1,700 a month. That's a 500% hike. Corey walked in, but I was going to steal his thunder, but he'll talk about it. Health care costs in Jersey are up 175%. And this is true in red states and blue states. In fact, it's even worse in red states because they've been so negligent and so cheap about providing Medicaid to people. And let me just say this. America was regarded as almost a third world country when it came to health care in the 1960s, because we didn't have Medicare or Medicaid or ACA. And through a lot of hard work and a lot of public pressure, we achieved Medicare and Medicaid, and then we had ACA. But from the very beginning, the Republican Party has tried to tear all of this down. Most recently, in 2017, when I worked with John McCain, and he did his thumbs down, and their desire to repeal ACA failed by a vote. But they're still at it. And that's what they did in their big, ugly betrayal bill. So the costs are outrageous. Americans are going to be finding this out starting today and over and over again on Saturday. And Republicans are trying the same failed play that they tried before. Get rid of health care for American people. You're on your own. If you can't afford health care, it's your fault. That's the Republican attitude. It's just horrible. And the American people hate it. 55% of Trump voters want the ACA tax credits extended. 55% of Trump voters and about 90% of all Americans. So what's Trump doing? He's busy building his ballroom, dancing in Malaysia, sending $40 billion to Argentina, $300 million for his ballroom, $170 million in luxury jets for Kristi Noem. They have money for that and not for health care? It's a disgrace. And the American people know it. We're here. We're not like the House Republicans who went away on a long vacation. House Republicans are being paid and not working, and federal workers are working and not being paid. It's a disgrace. But we're here. We're ready. Hakeem Jeffries and I are willing to sit down and negotiate a way out of this crisis with the Republican leadership. And the Republicans just keep saying later, to quote Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter in the Birmingham jail, when the Republicans say later, they mean never. And that's why we are pushing now to get this done. Republicans, Speaker Johnson, Trump, you've got to get serious. They're not serious. But we're going to keep holding their feet to the fire because the American people are who we care about. The American people are who we're doing this for. That couple that I mentioned sitting at a table on a Friday night who have a hole in the pit of their stomach because they think they're going to lose all their health care. That's who we're fighting for. And we're not going to rest until we succeed. Senator Booker. Thank you so much, Chuck. So here we are on day 29 of a government shutdown, 10 months in office. Donald Trump in this short period of time, his family wealth has increased by the billions. And we're seeing Americans face unprecedented challenges economically. It just underlines the fact that Donald Trump's administration in these 10 months is really marked by chaos, corruption and cruelty. The cruelty we're seeing in painful ways. Their big, beautiful bill, so-called, has already taken a battle axe and cut almost a billion dollars out of feeding programs for Americans. These are working families who already, because of the skyrocketing costs of rent or their mortgage or energy costs, are already dependent upon programs that are being cut by this administration. It is cruelty that now is being compounded by what we're seeing with the end of the ACA subsidies, as people are seeing what that means. In my state, New Jerseyans are going to pay over 170 percent more for their health care. I've talked to families up and down my state and their stories are painful, if not agonizing, because you hear parents talk to a family with a special needs child having to make the most difficult decision. We cannot afford health care for everyone in the family, so now we're trying to figure out which one of the two of us, the parents, should go without health coverage, or perhaps both of us. There is fear in my state of not knowing how you make tough choices, go deeper into credit card debt to cover health care costs, make a decision about whether to buy your prescription drugs that you need as the parent, and still try to get food on the table. Americans are seeing the sticker shock of health care that is skyrocketing because the Republicans refuse to do anything about the problem. There are painful days ahead for Americans who are already enduring the leadership of this administration that is kneecapping American farmers, hurting American companies, causing so much pain for American workers as people's energy costs go up, grocery costs go up, and now their health care costs skyrocket. This is an administration that is about corruption, chaos, and cruelty. They should come to the table and negotiate with us. Donald Trump promised to bring people's prices down. He's done the exact opposite. He should come to the table and negotiate with us to help people through this health care nightmare that right now will only get worse because the big beautiful bill is also gutting close to a trillion dollars out of Medicaid. This will be the worst health care disaster our nation has ever seen with more people poised to lose health insurance than at any other time. This is a uniquely American problem. The number one reason people go bankrupt in America is still their health care costs. This does not happen in Canada, does not happen in England, does not happen in France, does not happen in New Zealand. This is an American problem of the Republicans making and we're demanding that they do something about the pain and the hurt that American families are experiencing and the fear as they look at their health care costs going up in my state well over a hundred percent. These are working Americans who expect more from their leadership and I for one will continue to stand with the people of my state who are demanding help at a time that so many are hurting. I'm excited to bring up my colleague, truly someone who understands that you can't lead the people if you don't love the people, Senator Tina Smith. Well good morning. I think it's still morning everyone and thank you so much Senator Booker and I want to also particularly thank the folks standing behind me who aren't from Washington D.C. to tell us about what people are really talking about and you know I think that for most Americans health care isn't about politics. It is about, it's personal. Is your family healthy? Are your children healthy? Can you get in to see the doctors and the providers that you want? Can you afford to get the care that you need? And I think it is also true that most people in this country would agree that our health care system is broken. It takes too long to get what you need. It costs too much and it might not even be there when you need it. And so this summer when Donald Trump and Republicans passed their so-called one big beautiful bill, what did they do? They made this worse, not better. They kicked millions of people off of their health insurance and they made everything more expensive just when Americans are struggling to figure out how to afford their lives. And in fact what they did do is they found trillions of dollars to give huge tax breaks to big corporations and billionaires. But what didn't they do? They couldn't find the money to extend the ACA tax credit so that people can afford their health insurance. Plenty of money to give huge tax breaks for billionaires but not enough money to help regular people afford their health insurance. And now here we are. We're just a few days away from November 1st where millions of Americans are going to see their health insurance premiums double or triple. And I can tell you in Minnesota this is what people are seeing and feeling. This is what it looks like for people in my home state. I have talked to providers in Minnesota who know they have patients who need health care for chronic conditions who are faced with either dropping their health insurance or somehow figuring out how to literally skip going to the grocery store so they can afford their premiums. I've talked to a young woman who works for a non-profit child care provider and she is going to drop her health insurance because she can't afford it. She doesn't have health insurance through her work and what does this mean? It means she's going to postpone starting her own family. We are nearly 30 days into this shutdown and Republicans and Donald Trump are keeping the federal government shut down rather than working with Democrats to try to figure out how to solve this problem. And I can tell you Minnesotans are not happy about this. Farmers and ranchers, small businesses who rely on the health insurance exchange to buy their insurance, they are struggling to make a profit right now and Donald Trump and Republicans are making it worse by raising the cost of their health insurance to levels that they cannot afford. And I can tell you it is particularly rubbing salt in their wounds to see that at the same time Trump is sending 20 billion dollars to Argentina to bail out Argentina and to bail out the wealthy Wall Street fund managers who are going to benefit from this bailout but he refuses to help people afford their health insurance. So let me just be clear. Republicans are refusing to negotiate with us. They just keep doing the same damn thing over and over again and demand that we vote for their so-called clean CR but there is nothing clean about a CR that lowers, that raises health care costs for people so exorbitantly. It's bad for America, it's bad for Minnesota and I'm not going to help them do it. The best time to fix this was weeks ago but the next best time is right now and we can do better than say to America that you have two choices. One choice is skyrocketing health insurance premiums or the other choice is decimating the nutrition programs that help people put groceries on the table. That is not a real choice. That is not the choice that I will accept. We can do better than that. Now behind me we have some incredible folks who can tell you what they're seeing and hearing out in the country and I'm excited to introduce to you Dr. Fran Patel. Hi there. My name's Dr. Francesca Haydanek and I'm an OBGYN working in western New York. I spend my days and many of my nights taking care of high-risk patients who rely heavily on government assistance to receive care to survive their pregnancies. I'm often told in real life and online where I educate about obstetrics and gynecology that I as a doctor should not be political but health care is political and our current government shutdown reflects just how vital a functioning health care system is to our country. If health care insurance subsidies aren't renewed, families could see their insurance double or even triple next year and for many of my patients, many who are mothers who already struggle to make ends meet, that means making the choice. Do they pay for health insurance or do they pay for food and rent? And when my patients have to make that decision, which they already do daily, I see the fallout every single day. My non-pregnant patients are unable to see their primary care physicians prior to their pregnancies which means they enter pregnancy as a high-risk pregnancy because they couldn't get their diabetes and hypertension controlled prior to becoming pregnant. I see women skipping prenatal visits because they can no longer afford the gas to come to my clinic and I see mothers delaying care until their third trimester because they've lost their health insurance. I see patients rationing their insulin, skipping blood pressure checks or showing up in labor with no records, no labs, no care and no idea how dangerous that their situation could be because in my world, those delays are deadly. When a woman can't afford care, pre-eclampsia goes undiagnosed. I, as an OBGYN, have seen what an eclamptic seizure and subsequent stroke can do to the brain. Gestational diabetes goes unmanaged and I, as an OBGYN, have to be that person who manages a shoulder dystocia for a 10 and a half pound baby whose mother wasn't able to afford her insulin and a baby who could have been saved isn't there when I put the doppler on her abdomen. I've had to be the doctor who had to deliver a baby who should have been born alive but was born still. These are the continued and worsening realities of my future if my patients can't afford health care. I practice in both a high volume urban hospital serving a high Medicaid population and in a small rural hospital. I see how the lack of care in both of these areas affect outcomes for my patients and it's only going to worsen if health care premiums continue to skyrocket and rural hospitals shut down. We're not just fighting for better outcomes for our patients, we're fighting to keep our doors open. When premiums rise and patients lose insurance, our labor units fill with patients who are sicker and who don't have insurance and that financial strain is unbearable. Once a maternity ward closes, it almost never reopens. So yes, this shutdown is political and so is health care but the consequences of the lack of health care are deeply personal. Every mother deserves to walk into a delivery room without fear of losing everything, her home, her health insurance coverage, or her life just because she dared to have a baby in America. We need to extend the subsidies that make care affordable. We need to protect maternal health programs to keep our patients alive because when we fail our mothers, we fail our families. I became an OBGYN to deliver healthy babies. I never imagined I'd have to stand here pleading for my patients' ability to afford the care that keeps them alive. Thank you. Next is going to be Dr. Anita Patel. Tough act to follow. Good morning. My name is Anita Patel. I am an associate professor of pediatrics, a double board certified pediatrician and pediatric critical care attending researcher, and most importantly, a mother of two. I have dedicated my life to improving the health of our nation's children through clinical care and pediatric research. I am here today because we are witnessing a health care crisis unfold in slow motion and we have the power to stop it. The numbers defining this crisis are terrifying. One trillion dollars in health care cuts, 22 million people facing crushing premium hikes, and millions at risk of losing their health insurance, but numbers do not tell the full story. I want to tell you how this crisis will affect the lives and families, specifically the lives and families of the children I treat. Over the past 15 years in pediatrics and pediatric critical care medicine, I have seen firsthand what happens when children lose access to health care. I have intubated teenagers in diabetic comas because they had to ration their insulin that their families could not afford. I have battled uncontrolled seizures in the ICU which can cause permanent brain damage because parents had to choose between their child's seizure medications and paying their rent. I have held the hand of a mother whose daughter's treatable asthma became a life-threatening crisis that killed her because they couldn't afford albuterol. These stories are both tragic and tragically common. When health care costs become unbearable, life-saving epipens do not get refilled. A child's sinus infection turns into meningitis and a ruptured appendicitis leads to septic shock from delayed care. In medicine, we take an oath. First, do no harm. Right now, an action is causing harm and the children I have dedicated my life to protecting will bear the consequences. Every day I go to work, I see the absolute best of what our health care system can do. I see brilliant doctors and nurses performing miracles. I see children who survive against impossible odds. But I also see the worst consequences of policy choices that force families to choose between medical care for their children and other necessities. I am here to warn you, Congress's inaction is about to unleash an avalanche of suffering on our nation's children. As both a doctor and a mother, I am proud to stand with Senator Warren and these Democratic leaders who are fighting for health care for our nation's families and most importantly, the future of our nation, our children. Thank you. Hi, I'm Heather. I am OBGYN and I come to you as a person who provides reproductive health care in a working class community in the Bronx to ask, why are we trying to worsen our health care crisis? Unfortunately for my patients, they already face so many challenges to survive. There is a food pantry I pass on my way to work, which I have watched the lines get longer and longer for over the past few years, but over the past few weeks, it's been worse. I already have to try to work on creative ways for my pregnant patients to get insulin, visit a nutritionist, get glucometers and other medical supplies when they are newly diagnosed with gestational diabetes because there are gaps in coverage by existing health insurance available and they were unable to get their prior diabetes or pre-diabetic conditions managed before pregnancy. I already have to provide some of my pregnant patients their first meals of the day in my hospital at 3 p.m. when these folks get brought in by ambulance because they passed out on their way to work. On behalf of my patients who rely on Medicaid to receive their care, I ask that we make sure to keep access to affordable health care for them. These are the folks who keep my city, New York City, alive and well and it's already really, really hard for them to afford health care and food and housing and transportation. A lot of times my patients can't come to their prenatal appointments because they can't afford the $2.90 to take the bus or the train. Let's not make it harder for them. These folks are my neighbors, they're my friends, they're our friends and they're valued members of our communities. Thank you. Hello everybody. My name is Nikki Sapiro-Vinker. I'm an OBGYN physician assistant, reproductive health content creator, mom of three and founder of an organization that helps to improve health literacy within our ever-changing health care environment. And these days I wear a lot of hats. All of us are forced to wear so many hats and when I was preparing these remarks I thought to myself, what hat do I wear in this moment? Do I want to speak as a clinician, someone who spends their day-to-day talking to other people and listening to the harsh realities of what it looks like? Do I want to speak as a mom after three unpaid maternity leaves and struggling to afford child care with a master's degree? Do I want to speak as a content creator trying to reach the people who are tired of politics and struggling to figure out how they continue to afford their life when we got into this because of the price of eggs? Or do I speak as a non-profit founder trying to rebuild health literacy and helping people survive in this health care system that is falling apart? Or do I speak on behalf of all of our clinicians who, let me remind you, have been so burnt out since the COVID crisis five years ago and we still haven't crawled out of the deep depression that most of us clinicians sit in? And the truth is I can't pick one. I don't have the privilege to wear a single hat at any given time because right now in America every single thing is connected. To want health care is to want food, is to want community, is to be a mother, is to be a politician. It's all the exact same. And the truth is the people who are wearing the most hats are the ones who are holding our country together. Meanwhile, Republicans who wear a single hat can't even come to the table to do their one job. Health care is not a bargaining chip. It's not a luxury. It's the foundation of all of our lives and it's time for every lawmaker to start acting like it. Caring about people shouldn't be radical. It should be part of their job. We are in the middle of a health care emergency and it is an honor to be here today with clinicians who are on the front lines in dealing with this crisis. It is an honor and it is a responsibility. We are here trying to protect access to health care for 15 million Americans. We are here to try to keep our health care system at least a little bit affordable for millions more people. And where is Donald Trump and the Republicans? They would rather shut down the government than have to address this health care crisis and try to make health care more affordable for Americans. Look, I'm not going to defend our current health care system. I'm not going to defend a system that makes it so challenging for so many people to get the health care that they need. But this is what I know for damn sure. Donald Trump and the Republicans are not going to make that system any better. They want to withdraw millions of people from having access to health care. And that is not only going to hurt those people and their families directly, it's going to hurt everyone. Because the consequence of this is to shut down community health centers, is to shut down rural hospitals, is to shut down labor and delivery rooms as a way to try to save money in our hospitals. It's to start to bring the entire health care system down. And sure, if you're a billionaire, shoot, you can buy your own hospital. You can get as many people to treat you as needed. You can take care of yourself and your little family. But for everybody else in America, we depend on an interrelated health care system. And telling 15 million people that they're going to lose access to their health insurance and their health care coverage, and millions more are going to have to make the decision whether to have health insurance or whether to pay the rent, is going to cause our overall health system to get worse for everyone who is not a billionaire. So Democrats are here because we are fighting back. We show up at the hard fights and we fight for the American people. That's what this shutdown has been about. That's what today is all about. Because Democrats believe that health care should not be reserved just for rich people. Democrats believe that nobody should go bankrupt over a bad medical diagnosis. And Democrats believe that it is our solemn obligation to save access to health care for all people in this country. So I just want to say one more time, thank you to all of you for the work you do every single day. And thank you for coming here today to tell more people about it and get more people into this fight. And thank you to my colleagues who stay strong in this fight. Democrats are showing up and we are here to fight for the American people who just want access to get the care they need. I'm done. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Are we going to answer any questions? We do any questions? Okay. Okay. All right.