(GPB News) – The U.S. Senate rejected two proposals aiming to address health care affordability Thursday.
Both of Georgia’s senators supported a Democratic bill that would extend Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years.
Sen. Jon Ossoff said Georgians will suffer when the subsidies expire in a speech on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
“My constituents cannot afford this,” he said. “And some of my constituents cannot survive it.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock echoed Ossoff’s concerns, calling health care inequality a matter of life or death.
“That’s not drama; it’s the truth,” he said Thursday morning at an event at the Center for American Progress. “People are going to die because of the decisions that politicians are making in real time.”
Ossoff and Warnock voted against a Republican bill that would give money to HSA accounts of low-income Americans Thursday. That bill also failed to get enough votes to advance.
Around 1.5 million Georgians are currently enrolled in ACA plans. The expiration of subsidies could cause ACA premiums to increase.
