On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded to a question on whether Obamacare or the entire system don’t work if they need massive subsidies to be affordable by saying that “we believe that our healthcare system is broken and it’s in need of comprehensive reform.”
Host Chris Hayes asked, “What do you say to people who say, look, the subsidies at issue were first passed during COVID as an emergency measure. They have been extended now, it’s 2025. Is there some fundamental failure of the Affordable Care Act or the entire system, if, absent this kind of band-aid, you’re going to see these sort of price spikes?”
Jeffries answered, “Well, listen, we believe that our healthcare system is broken and it’s in need of comprehensive reform. Republicans, of course, have aggravated that situation in the most extraordinary way and in a variety of [ways], largest cut to Medicaid in American history. Their policies are closing hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health clinics all across the country. Of course, they’re assaulting medical research, have basically shut that down in the country. They want to trigger the largest cut to Medicare at the end of the year, $536 billion. And, of course, this issue with their refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. Now, initially, it was passed as part of the American Rescue Plan in March of 2021, but it was extended as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and that was in 2022, because, as Democrats, we understood that the American people were experiencing this extraordinary high cost of living in all of the areas, and then we need to work hard to bring costs down. And Donald Trump and Republicans, of course, they promised, on day one, that they were going to lower the high cost of living. Costs aren’t going down, they’re going up, grocery prices going up, housing costs going up, child care going up, and, of course, as a result of what they refuse to do, healthcare premiums about to skyrocket for tens of millions of Americans. That’s why we need to act, and we need to act now, not on a wing and a prayer, not on some promise from Republicans, who, by the way, Chris, as you know, have tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 70 different times over the last 15 years. We’re not going to trust these people. We need decisive, real legislative action.”
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