Whip Clark: “We Are Not Going back to a Less Healthy and Less Just America.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-5) joined Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14) to push permanently extend ACA subsidies that keep health care costs low for millions of Americans.

"Thank you so much, Leader Schumer and to our bicameral ACA champions. It is a pleasure to be here with Senator Shaheen - a fellow New Englander and neighbor. What a pleasure to be here with our champion of health care in the House, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, who is also a valued member of our House Democratic leadership. We thank you for all your work on the ACA and health care, and also for the very successful hearing exposing Project 2025 [that] you were critical in putting together yesterday.

"But what we have today is the perfect illustration of two very, starkly different agendas that have been presented to the American people. From the Democrats, an offer to preserve, strengthen, and expand access to health care. A proposal that would prevent 5 million Americans from losing their insurance next year. The Republican offer? Repeal the ACA. Don't just kick those millions of Americans off their insurance - those 5 million - but 21 million people who currently get their health care through the ACA.

"Don't just take my word for it, Donald Trump has said it was a low point - a low point - of his presidency, that he failed to repeal the ACA. Not the global pandemic, not the insurrection at our Capitol, not the crimes he committed. His biggest regret is that he failed to tear away health care from the American people. And now he'd like the opportunity to take another run at it.

"Well, we're not going back. We're not going back to a less healthy and less just America. We're not going back to an America where being a woman is a pre-existing condition, where health care is treated like a privilege. We are going forward to a future where health care is upheld - is the fundamental human right that it is.

"And I am so proud to stand with my Democratic colleagues, House and Senate, as we move forward together into the future. I am so grateful for the work of Senator Shaheen on all of this, and for being such a champion for access to health care for American families."

Photos of the event can be found HERE, the full event can be viewed HERE.