00:10The leader is on his way and feels very strongly about this topic and thought we ought to get going.
00:16Last weekend, I had five town hall meetings in parts of eastern Oregon.
00:23These were communities where Donald Trump got almost 70% of the vote.
00:27And so in these deeply rural areas, there was a lot of talk about health care.
00:33And the Oregonians that I spoke with were really alarmed, and this was the case,
00:39even if they don't get health care through Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act.
00:45And that's because, as you hear what we're going to talk about this morning,
00:50you will realize that your health care isn't safe under Trump care.
00:55And Donald Trump and Republicans have been actively misleading the American people.
01:03Americans were never told that their flawed bill will punch a hole that's a lot deeper than Medicaid.
01:13Americans who have private health coverage, like through an employer, a lot of them think they're safe.
01:19That's just not true.
01:22Insurance companies are increasing premiums by the highest amount in nearly a decade.
01:29In the coming weeks, Americans who buy private health insurance are going...
01:36Even the insurance people are turning the lights on.
01:40Somebody touched one of those lights.
01:42There we go.
01:46The insurance companies are increasing premiums by the highest amount in almost a decade.
01:52In the coming weeks, Americans who buy health insurance on their own are going to be mailed notices about big premium spikes.
02:00Hospitals are discussing the possibility of closing their doors or winding down services like labor and delivery.
02:08For those that have already announced they're closing, that means services aren't going to be available for anybody, not just folks on Medicaid.
02:19Long-term care safety under their bill is going to be jeopardized because of reductions in nursing home staff,
02:26regardless of whether your loved one is covered by Medicaid.
02:29States are talking about cutting optional benefits, like home care for kids, which is critical in families like the little lobbyists, the wonderful little lobbyists.
02:41Let's have a round of applause for them.
02:43And I'm kind of a hawk on privacy, like my friend Senator Merkley, and I can tell you your health privacy is a lot less safe
02:54as health providers provide fewer dollars and invest in some of the essential services like cybersecurity.
03:03So that's why Democrats are here today with a simple message.
03:06Let's scrap Trump care.
03:09Let's scrap these cuts.
03:11And what we ought to be doing is working to lower insurance premiums, like my friend Senator Shaheen is doing.
03:21Senator Shaheen is leading us, Senate Democrats, in terms of getting health care insurance for the working class and middle class folks.
03:31If Congress doesn't act soon on measures like Senator Shaheen's, Americans who buy health insurance are in for a world of hurt.
03:39They'll get those notices in the mail that the premiums are doubling when they go looking for a new and cheaper plan.
03:47The only affordable options will be what we call Swiss cheese health insurance.
03:51That's what we called it back in Great Panther days, and the holes in the Swiss cheese are getting even bigger.
03:57And if they even find that plan that works, they'll have to jump through all kinds of new verification hoops.
04:04They're going to have to go through a thicket of red tape and bureaucracy created by the Trump administration.
04:09And if you make an error, an innocent error in paperwork, they're going to make you start all over again, because that's what this is going to be like.
04:19A small business owner in Bend, Oregon, with a family of four, is going to see their premium rise by more than $600 a month.
04:26And the longer it takes to stop the cuts, the more the American health care system will be shaped in the image Trump and Republicans have envisioned.
04:33Higher premiums, more red tape, bailouts for big, big pharma.
04:38That's what's going on with one of the really popular cancer, you know, drugs are raising the prices.
04:44So Democrats are saying we're not going to sit around and watch people get hurt.
04:49That's why we're going ahead with the Shaheen bill.
04:52That's why we're going ahead with measures that deal with holding down costs.
04:57A whole group of us on the Finance Committee, Senator Merkley has been doing good work on this.
05:01We're going to stop upcoding.
05:03You know, upcoding is a way that you jack up bills.
05:06Republicans aren't doing anything on that.
05:09We're taking the lead.
05:10So my colleagues here are going to walk you through where we're going.
05:13But I just want everybody to know that I think the Trump people have misled the American people and talked about Medicaid and lots of other people.
05:23We have 330 million Americans and lots of them are going to get hurt by this deeply flawed bill.
