Gottheimer: End of Subsidies Isn't Beginning of End for ACA, It's Beginning of End of Attempt to 'Get Prices Down'

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) stated that if legislation he has proposed to extend ACA subsidies doesn’t pass, it’s not the beginning of the end for the Affordable Care Act, it’s “the beginning of the end of an attempt to actually get prices down for folks and make their lives more affordable.”

Co-host Sara Sidner asked, “[I]f that doesn’t pass by December 31, is this the beginning of the end of Obamacare?”

Gottheimer answered, “No. What we’re talking about here is the beginning of the end of an attempt to actually get prices down for folks and make their lives more affordable. What I don’t understand about — and listen, if the speaker has a solution that’s actually going to get health insurance premiums down and help extend these tax credits so that their premiums don’t go up 175% come January, of course, we’re all ears. And I’ll sit down with anybody if we’ve got a solution to help people out. But the bottom line is, for — we’ve known about this for months. They have done nothing about it. And we’re going to keep making sure people have, as best we can, more affordable health care. But if you’ve got some of [them] on the far right refusing to even have a conversation about how we’re going to make life more affordable for people, it’s just incredibly frustrating for many of us, which is why, there’s a bipartisan group of us, again, Democrats and Republicans, who have a solution. It’s on the table. As you pointed out, you’ve got 38 members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, who’ve signed onto this. I’ve talked with many of my colleagues in the Senate who think this is a good solution. So, my feeling is, let’s get a vote on this thing, let’s solve this problem next week, let everyone go home for the holidays with lower health insurance premiums instead of facing some coal in their stockings on Christmas with higher premiums next year, which, to me, is totally and completely unacceptable. People are struggling with these tariff prices, with the impact of the tariffs, and — which is just a giant tax on people. They’re struggling with their electric bills and the cost of food and everything else. So, we need to make life more affordable for them, that’s what we’re focused on, and making sure they have this health insurance.”

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