Kaine Statement Ahead of Critical Health Care Vote

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement ahead of a vote on a three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits proposed by Senate Democrats. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year after Republicans failed to extend them as part of the budget bill they passed this summer to cut taxes for billionaires.

“Later today, the Senate will vote on simple legislation to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits and prevent health care costs from sky-rocketing for millions of Americans and nearly four hundred thousand Virginians. I have heard from countless constituents about the difference this extension would make for their families, who are already struggling with high prices on everything else, from food to housing and energy. The floodlights will be on my Republican colleagues, who know that the American people—78 percent of whom support extending these tax credits—expect them to vote for this legislation. If they don’t, they could very well be replaced at the ballot box by someone who will.”

A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 78 percent of the public say they want Congress to extend the enhanced tax credits. As a member of HELP, Kaine has long advocated for their extension. Thus far, Republicans have refused to cross the aisle to extend them.

Nearly 400,000 Virginians are enrolled in marketplace coverage. Expiration of these credits is predicted to cause 94,000 Virginians to be unenrolled in health insurance through the marketplace, 50,000 Virginians to be uninsured, and hundreds of millions of dollars to be lost in federal funding and state gross domestic product.

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