Andrew Ross Sorkin (Anchor) 00:00.310
this house minority leader keith jeffries good morning to you you heard the president last night he says the democrats are in the pockets of the insurance companies and that the price of your health care is actually to go down under his plan what say you
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 00:16.700
well good morning great to be with you the republican health care crisis is devastating the american people and donald trump has zero credibility on the issue of health care this is the party that has enacted the largest cut to medicaid in american history in the same bill where
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 00:32.220
they enacted massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors because of republican policies and the one big ugly bill we know that hospitals nursing homes and community based health centers are closing all across the country including in rural america republicans have launched
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 00:47.590
an all out assault on the centers for disease control the national institute of health of the food and drug administration on vaccine availability for children and now republicans are refusing to extend the affordable care act tax credits which means that tens of millions of
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 01:02.350
americans working class americans are about to experience dramatically increased health insurance premiums we are working hard to decisively confront this republican healthcare crisis and fix our broken health care system
Andrew Ross Sorkin (Anchor) 01:16.350
leader but let me ask you this and i recognize the the complications of of and cost to the american public there is a question and maybe you'd say it's a longer term question that has to be dealt with later but the true question ultimately underneath all of this is how we're
Andrew Ross Sorkin (Anchor) 01:31.830
going to actually lower the costs of healthcare in america and when i say lower the cost not just lower the cost for individuals meaning in the moment subsidized it but how we actually change the market dynamic at play and whether what you have proposed even tries to address
Andrew Ross Sorkin (Anchor) 01:50.670
that at all or frankly exacerbates it
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 01:54.860
what we've proposed at the moment relates to the fact that the affordable care act and tax credits are going to expire on december thirty first and no one disputes that if that happens tens of millions of americans are going to experience skyrocketing health insurance premiums
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 02:11.940
in some cases increasing by a thousand or two thousand dollars per month and ninety percent of the people who rely on the affordable care act tax credits make around sixty three thousand dollars per year these are working class americans everyday americans and middle class
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 02:26.910
americans and so we've got to make sure that we don't allow these tax credits to expire at the same time you raise a very good point andrew that the healthcare system is broken and we need to fix it we want to fix it in a comprehensive way in a bipartisan way but that actually
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 02:44.870
requires republicans deciding to abandon their my way or the highway approach to everything which is what has led to the extremist that they're jamming down the throats of the american people and the fact that everyday americans voters are rejecting that extremism as we saw in
Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader) 03:02.550
the off year elections last november