DPCC Incoming Chair Cicilline: Democrats Will Protect Access To Health Care For All Americans

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman David Cicilline, Incoming Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on America’s Newsroom on FOX News to discuss Washington Republicans’ latest effort to sabotage health care coverage for millions of Americans. Cicilline highlighted how Democrats will protect access to health care and drive down health care costs. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video

“I'm always supporting working together. But we should remember if this court ruling stands 17 million people will lose their health insurance, 133 million Americans will lose coverage for pre-existing conditions. And that would be devastating for working families in this country. Democrats have always been willing to work together. But we should remember that Republicans have tried more than 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act and had no replacement for it. The President's great idea was TrumpCare - where 32 million people would lose their health insurance and so would coverage for pre-existing conditions be eliminated. So I think everyone has a right to be skeptical about the President and the Republicans, their idea of a better plan…We’re going to fight hard to protect the Affordable Care Act and build upon its success, drive down costs of consumers, drive down the costs of prescription drugs, and get more people covered.”

“I think great health care came about with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. We absolutely have to work together to improve it. It is not perfect. We need to drive down health care costs and drive down the costs of prescription drugs. Democrats have real plans to do that if our Republicans colleagues will work with us, we can get it done. We have to abandon the idea of taking away health care from millions and millions of Americans. We start off with the premise we want more people to be covered, we want to drive down costs, drive down deductibles, drive down the cost of prescription drug, and build on the success of the Affordable Care Act is the best way to do it. Not scrapping it all as the Republicans have been attempting to do.”

“I think we absolutely want to drive down the costs but taking away the individual mandates, take the healthy people out of the pool as the Republicans did in their tax bill is another way to undermine this. We want to expand coverage, drive down costs. And we're willing to work with the Republicans and the President if they're really serious about that. Unfortunately what we've seen instead is effort after effort after effort to take away health care completely, to take away coverage from pre-existing conditions, and the Republicans promised they would do that and this court decision is another manifestation of that.”

“I think that's what we did with the Affordable Care Act. It was the first step. We need to build upon its success. And sadly what we've seen instead is not Republican colleagues that are willing to work with us to improve it - but that are committed to repealing it in its entirety. The Republican Attorneys General got the decision they wanted: to take away the Affordable Care Act from millions and millions of Americans. We are not going to let that happen. We’re committed to making it better…We’re committed to protecting access to health care for all Americans.”