‘Hope and healthcare to so many’: Kaine responds to House Republicans’ plan to reduce ACA

In a proposed budget for fiscal year 2025, House Republicans plan to roll back funding for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which marks 14 years tomorrow of becoming law in the United States.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released a statement ahead of the anniversary. 

“The Affordable Care Act was an enormous step forward toward the goal of ensuring that all Americans—regardless of where they live or what pre-existing conditions they have — can access high-quality, affordable health care. Fourteen years later, more Americans than ever before are relying on this program to get the care they need. But instead of building on our progress by further expanding and strengthening health care access, congressional Republicans released a plan this week to roll back the ACA and rip health care away from millions of Americans. We’ve defeated those efforts before, and I will fight to defeat them again,” Kaine said. 

Kaine also released a video of his speaking about the anniversary.

The House Republican plan significantly curtails the ACA, as well as Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Millions of Americas could lose health care coverage or see the quality of coverage reduced. Under the plan, Americans could also be denied care for pre-existing conditions and women could face health insurance rate hikes.

Kaine has long fought for increased access to high-quality, affordable health care and lower prescription drug costs. He advocated for and promoted the ACA across the country and cast the deciding vote in the U.S. Senate against Donald Trump’s plan to abolish the ACA in August 2017. He has championed his Medicare-X Choice Act, legislation that would reduce the uninsured population by more than a million Americans and save households, employers and the government billions of dollars. Two provisions from that legislation — to require Medicare to negotiate drug prices and to extend ACA premium tax credits — were included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Kaine voted for the IRA, which was passed in the Senate by one vote before being signed into law by President Biden in 2022. Last year, Kaine introduced the bipartisan Help Ensure Lower Patient (HELP) Copays Act, legislation that would protect patients from harmful insurance and Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) practices that raise out-of-pocket drug costs for patients.