Trump signs executive order on Healthcare (page 2)

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House Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH, 8th)

“As a manufacturer and job creator a little over one year ago, I can appreciate that this order expands the ability of small businesses and their employees to participate in new types of health insurance arrangements which is why I supported a similar measure that passed the House earlier this year. While this order makes many positive strides concerning healthcare affordability, Congress must act to make these and other reforms permanent. More importantly, Congress cannot simply give up on our promise and accept failure on Obamacare repeal. Republicans in Congress, and particularly in the Senate, need to pick up the torch and repeal Obamacare so families in Ohio and across the country can finally have the relief they were promised.”

Diana Degette (D-CO, 1st)

“This latest act of sabotage by the failing Trump presidency against the ACA will cause a million people to lose insurance in just the first year, drive up premiums and out-of-pocket payments for the rest and cause damaging instability in the insurance markets,” DeGette said. “President Trump is trying to achieve via edict what he couldn’t do through legislation: Dismantle the ACA and replace it with a cruel system that punishes the most vulnerable. This is Trumpcare by a thousand cuts.

“Congress needs to act immediately to provide funding for the cost-sharing reductions,” DeGette noted. “And we must work together in a bipartisan fashion to improve health care coverage in this country, rather than ripping it to bits.”

John Delaney (D-MD, 6th)

“Once again, President Trump is taking a completely backwards approach on health care: instead of trying to solve problems, he is deliberately creating them and instead of trying to expand access to coverage, he is deliberately trying to take it away.

“There’s no attempt at good policy here, no attempt at serving the people, just a blind and frenzied effort to secure some kind of political ‘win’ at any cost, all with nary a voice in his own party willing to speak out. We truly need thoughtful and responsible Republicans to stand up and put country before party, because we can’t let our great country be governed by tweets and empty slogans anymore. Decisions like this have a direct impact on people’s lives. There are bipartisan solutions in front of us that could fix the individual marketplaces – let’s put petty politics aside and actually do what’s right.”

Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA, 11th)

“This is yet another attack by President Trump to undermine the success and stability of the ACA. This irresponsible decision will make it easier for insurance companies to discriminate against Americans with pre-existing conditions and take advantage of those most in need of affordable, comprehensive health coverage. It is appalling that this Administration, despite public opposition, is prioritizing reckless campaign promises over working on behalf of the American people to improve our health care system.”

Debbie Dingell (D-MI, 12th)

“This spiteful decision by President Trump will have devastating consequences for the health care that families, seniors and children rely upon. The President’s action does nothing to improve care or bring down costs for the American people, which should be a shared goal of the President and every Member of Congress. Instead, this decision will directly result in higher costs for working families, create instability in the marketplace, and result in millions being uninsured in 2018.

“This is absolutely unacceptable. The American people have rejected Trumpcare time and again. Since the President was unsuccessful in ramming his awful repeal bill through Congress, he has taken it upon himself to dismantle health care for the American people. This is shameful. President Trump is directly responsible for the negative impacts this will have on families across the country. Congressional Republicans should work with Democrats to reinstate these critical payments and improve, not undermine, the health care Americans depend upon.”

Scott DesJarlais (R-TN, 4th)

“Since its inception, Obamacare has failed America’s middle class, bearing the brunt of increased health care costs, fewer insurance options and a decline in the quality of medical care, as doctors and facilities disappear, particularly in rural districts like mine. Because of excessive taxes and regulations, employers are dropping coverage. At the same time, insurers have fled state exchanges, and millions remain uninsured.

“More federal interference, such as single-payer, is the wrong answer. Giving workers, families and small businesses more choice and flexibility is the right one. The President’s order should help Tennesseans negotiate better prices, find inexpensive, short-term insurance, if necessary, and take advantage of tax-free accounts to purchase better health care. But ultimately, Congress must pass free-market reforms Republicans have advocated for years. The Senate must act.”

Eliot Engel (D-NY, 16th)

“The President’s decision to cut off cost-sharing reduction payments is his most outrageous act of sabotage against our health care system yet.

“These payments enable insurers to keep consumers’ out-of-pocket costs down. Per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), ending them will cause premiums to rise and spur insurers to leave markets, in turn leaving Americans with fewer choices – the exact opposite of what the President has promised for months.

“If the President truly believed that action was needed on Congress’s part, he would have called on Congress to act. I have cosponsored the Marketplace Certainty Act, along with dozens of my colleagues, to appropriate funding for the cost-sharing reduction payments and remove any ambiguity on this issue. But, instead, the President chose to put millions of Americans’ health care at risk.

“Just yesterday, the President signed an Executive Order that could bring back the junk insurance policies that, before the ACA, offered little value for your money and punished sick people for their health status. Now, he’s doubled-down with a move that will hike up premiums and limit consumer choice. All of this amounts to the same ‘pay more, get less’ plan that the American people rejected in Trumpcare.

“Make no mistake: any instability in our health care system going forward will be a direct consequence of the President’s actions over the past two days. There is no reason for the President to make this move other than to hurt Americans. I am deeply saddened that in his desperation to see the ACA fail, he has made this egregious decision.”

Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT, 3rd)

“President Trump’s unilateral latest decision to stop making cost-sharing reduction payments will increase premiums for millions of Americans and will destabilize the marketplaces. The President is dead wrong when he calls these payments ‘bailouts.’ The truth is that they help people with modest means reduce their out-of-pocket healthcare costs. This action hurts the working and middle class Americans that President Trump promised to advocate for. He has now turned his back on them and is using them as a bargaining chip.”

“Congressional Republicans must immediately come to the table and work with Democrats to ensure these vital payments are continued and to make healthcare more affordable.”