Washington, D.C. – This Sunday, open enrollment begins, and millions of families across the nation will begin signing up for coverage. For the second year in a row, families will be staring down double-digit premium hikes thanks to the GOP’s unrelenting health care crisis, which has driven costs through the roof and kicked 8 million people off their Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid, or CHIP coverage.
Last year, Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress ignited a full-blown health care crisis when they ripped away the premium tax credits that over 22 million Americans relied on to see a doctor, to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Since then, families have been forced to make impossible choices to hang on to their coverage, including cutting back on essentials and skipping doctors’ appointments. The uninsured rate has climbed to 11.2% — the highest since the ACA took effect over a decade ago. Republicans have put care at risk for countless seniors, sick kids, and moms, and things will only get worse as care is put further out of reach for millions.
Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:
“Thanks to Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, who sold out working families’ health care for billionaire tax breaks, millions of families will face yet another brutal sticker shock when they log on for open enrollment. Families are already living through an unprecedented cost of living crisis and the last thing they need is for their premiums to go up again. Already, over 8 million Americans have lost the coverage they relied on because Republicans let the ACA premium tax credits expire. Now even more people will be forced off of the life-saving coverage they need and deserve as costs skyrocket and blow a hole in budgets across the nation. Working families are sick of this crisis and they are sick of paying more and getting less. It’s no wonder that this election is a healthcare election, and in just a few days, they will get the chance to voice their outrage and demand change.”
BACKGROUND