WATCH: Baldwin forces vote to overturn Trump policy that will jack up costs, terminate care for 2 million on Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) forced the U.S. Senate to vote to repeal the Trump Administration’s policy that will undermine the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Senate Republicans voted against this effort, greenlighting Trump’s rule that will terminate coverage for up to two million Americans, raise out-of-pocket costs, and make it easier for insurance companies to cover fewer services. The vote on the resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) was 48 – 51.

“For over a decade, President Trump and Congressional Republicans have tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, without a plan to replace it for the 23 million Americans who rely on this program for insurance. So, they have turned to backdoor ways to chip away at the program and cause chaos for the Americans who rely on it for their health care. Americans understand what a lifeline this program is for cancer patients, Americans with disabilities, farmers, and entrepreneurs,” said Senator Baldwin. “This misguided policy, which Republicans and the President own, will jack up out-of-pocket costs and deductibles on millions, pile on red tape, and reduce coverage for essential things like addiction treatment, hearing aids, and more. This policy makes people pay more for worse care. As Americans struggle to afford the cost of just about everything right now, Republicans and President Trump continue to price working families out of insurance and undermine folks’ ability to access quality care.”

WATCH: Senator Baldwin delivers remarks on Senate floor

The Trump Administration’s rule promotes the use of catastrophic health plans with extremely high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs, loosens physician network requirements for plans, and will allow insurers to offer “non-network” plans that may not cover the cost of care. This would make it easier for insurers to raise out-of-pocket costs, sell new kinds of junk insurance coverage, increase working families’ deductibles, cover fewer services, and kick more providers out of network. Senate Republicans rejected Baldwin’s resolution to overturn this rule.

The result would be worse coverage at higher costs, including:

  • Terminate Insurance for Up to 2M: According to CMS estimates, the rule would reduce enrollment in ACA plans by up to 2 million.
  • Jack Up Costs: Insurance would become more unaffordable. For example, bronze plans would have maximum out-of-pocket costs of $15,600 for an individual or $31,200 for a family in 2027 – almost the entire income of an individual earning at the federal poverty level.
  • Reduce Benefits: Benefits may be reduced in many states – meaning Americans could lose access to coverage for substance use disorder treatment, hearing aids, or other critical services.
  • Increase Red Tape: Paperwork burden would increase on 4.7 million Americans, making it more difficult for them to get the coverage they deserve and kicking millions off their insurance.
  • Cut off Americans from their Doctors: Access to providers would decrease as insurance companies sell non-network health plans – with unlimited costs to consumers – and reduce the number of providers in their networks.

The CRA resolution would have repealed this destructive rule under the Congressional Review Act. Repealing this rule would prevent millions of Americans from losing their health insurance, stop working families from facing astronomical out-of-pocket costs, and make it harder for insurance companies to take advantage of Americans by selling them junk insurance.

Senator Baldwin has long pushed back against Republicans’ attempts to hollow out the Affordable Care Act and support Americans who rely on the marketplace for coverage. Earlier this year, she led her colleagues in demanding that the Trump Administration reverse course on its harmful proposed rule. Senator Baldwin has long pushed to curb the expansion of junk health insurance plans, culminating in the Biden Administration heeding her years-long call to limit the availability of short-term limited duration insurance in 2024.

More information about this rule is available here. Full text of this resolution is available here.

An online version of this release is available here.