Murray Blasts President Trump, Republicans for Abandoning Protections for Pre-existing Conditions

President Trump’s Department of Justice announced it will stop defending pre-existing conditions protections in court

Move jeopardizes protections that prevent insurers from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions, gender, or age

Nearly unprecedented move threatens coverage for millions of families, ignores overwhelming public support for protecting people with pre-existing conditions

Murray: “[President Trump] has continued to undermine health care for our families at every available opportunity. And Republicans have been in lockstep with him the entire way.”

In a statement released yesterday, Senator Murray also responded to claims that Republicans all support protecting pre-existing conditions

Murray reminded Republicans that Democrats are at the table and still focused on solutions to address the damage done by health care sabotage: “… we’ll be here all August ready to work to fix this for families in Washington state and across the country.”

**WATCH SEN. MURRAY’S SPEECH HERE**

(Washington, D.C.) — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), delivered remarks on the Senate floor condemning the Trump-Pence Administration’s refusal to defend key pillars of the Affordable Care Act in court and calling on her Republican colleagues to return to the negotiating table and join Democrats in passing a bipartisan bill to reduce health care premiums, stabilize insurance markets, and stop Republican health care sabotage.

In her remarks, Senator Murray criticized the Trump Administration for abandoning protections for patients with pre-existing conditions, as well as seniors and women, and prioritizing the interests of the extreme right over the health and wellbeing of millions of people. Senator Murray noted the nearly unprecedented decision was just the latest of many steps taken by the Trump Administration to sabotage health care, including their decisions to expand junk insurance plans, restrict critical family planning funding, and pass a partisan tax bill that paid for tax cuts for massive corporations with policies that even President Trump’s own former Secretary of Health admitted would raise premiums.

Key excerpts from Senator Murray’s remarks:

“Last week, the Trump-Pence Administration showed once again there is no limit to how low and how baseless they’ll go to appeal to extreme Republican donors and special interests. President Trump’s Department of Justice announced that it will ignore years of precedent and abandon its duty to defend our laws in court. It will abandon our laws that prevent insurers from denying people with pre-existing conditions coverage, or charging people more because of their gender, or raising premiums without limit for seniors.”

“This decision also makes it clear President Trump is ignoring the lessons he should’ve learned last year. Around this time last year… The Trumpcare bill ultimately failed as people across the country stood up and made it clear they didn’t support President Trump’s sabotage agenda. But President Trump didn’t listen. Instead he has continued to undermine health care for our families at every available opportunity. And Republicans have been in lockstep with him the entire way.”

“The decision goes against years of legal precedent, it goes against the wishes of families across the country who want their government to care about patients, not partisan politics, and it even goes against promises of many Republicans who claimed they were going to fight for these important patient protections.”

““Republicans may not be listening, but families across the country have been speaking up loud and clear—they want us to fight for them and for health care policies that can help them get the care they need. While President Trump and Attorney General Sessions have never fought for patients—as their latest decision makes abundantly clear—Democrats have never stopped fighting for them. And we’re not going to stop now.”

“We actually had a bipartisan deal that would have accomplished this goal—but unfortunately, Republican leaders have been clear from the start that they are not interested in lowering premiums, they are not interested in stabilizing the market, and they are not interested in fixing problems. Instead, they are interested in helping special interests and donors, and catering to the extreme right.”

“Despite their move to throw a wrench in our bipartisan work—Democrats are still at the table and we’ll be here all August ready to work to fix this for families in Washington state and across the country. I hope going forward cooler heads will prevail and Republicans will return to the table and join us on finding solutions to lower patients’ costs and strengthen health care in our country, rather than continuing to help President Trump sabotage it.”

Video of Senator Murray’s remarks available HERE.

Full text of Senator Murray’s remarks:

“Thank you M. President.

“I rise today to discuss President Trump’s ongoing efforts to sabotage health care for millions of families across the country.

“Last week, the Trump-Pence Administration showed once again there is no limit to how low and how baseless they’ll go to appeal to extreme Republican donors and special interests. President Trump’s Department of Justice announced that it will ignore years of precedent and abandon its duty to defend our laws in court. It will abandon our laws that prevent insurers from denying people with pre-existing conditions coverage, or charging people more because of their gender, or raising premiums without limit for seniors.

“This decision also makes it clear President Trump is ignoring the lessons he should’ve learned last year. Around this time last year, Republicans were trying to ram through the President’s partisan health care bill, filled with proposals that would’ve scrapped patient protections, spiked premiums and health care costs, imposed an age tax on seniors, gutted Medicaid, and thrown our entire health care system into chaos.

“The Trumpcare bill ultimately failed as people across the country stood up and made it clear they didn’t support President Trump’s sabotage agenda. But President Trump didn’t listen. Instead he has continued to undermine health care for our families at every available opportunity. And Republicans have been in lockstep with him the entire way.

“Like when President Trump expanded loopholes to allow junk insurance plans that don’t include consumer protections.

“Like when Congressional Republicans jammed through a partisan tax bill to undermine our health care laws.

“Like when President Trump announced radical new restrictions on federal family planning funding based on ideology that would result in less access to health care for millions of women across the nation, and a new gag rule that would interfere with providers’ ability to discuss the full range of reproductive health services with patients.

“These steps were all designed to make it harder for women and families to get the care they need. And last week, President Trump’s Administration took yet another step to undermine the health care system.

“In a nearly unprecedented move, the Trump Administration announced it would no longer defend the Affordable Care Act in court. The Trump Administration announced it would abandon the parts of the law that prevent health care discrimination against women, against seniors, and against those with pre-existing conditions.

“The decision goes against years of legal precedent, it goes against the wishes of families across the country who want their government to care about patients, not partisan politics, and it even goes against promises of many Republicans who claimed they were going to fight for these important patient protections.

“Republicans may not be listening, but families across the country have been speaking up loud and clear—they want us to fight for them and for health care policies that can help them get the care they need. While President Trump and Attorney General Sessions have never fought for patients—as their latest decision makes abundantly clear—Democrats have never stopped fighting for them. And we’re not going to stop now.

“We remain dedicated to working toward common sense solutions that can help bring health costs down and begin to fix some of the damage done by President Trump.

“We actually had a bipartisan deal that would have accomplished this goal—but unfortunately, Republican leaders have been clear from the start that they are not interested in lowering premiums, they are not interested in stabilizing the market, and they are not interested in fixing problems. Instead, they are interested in helping special interests and donors, and catering to the extreme right.

“Despite their move to throw a wrench in our bipartisan work—Democrats are still at the table and we’ll be here all August ready to work to fix this for families in Washington state and across the country. I hope going forward cooler heads will prevail and Republicans will return to the table and join us on finding solutions to lower patients’ costs and strengthen health care in our country, rather than continuing to help President Trump sabotage it.

“Thank you.”

###