May 09,2025

Wyden, Senate Democrats Blast Trump Administration Effort to Restrict Health Coverage, Raise Costs for Working Americans

“This Administration is rushing through policies to raise premiums and out-of-pocket costs, set red-tape and paperwork traps, and worsen the overall quality of coverage that millions of working people and their families rely on.”

Washington, D.C. – In the wake of Americans already facing an unstable Trump economy with skyrocketing costs, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., led 16 senators in opposing a proposal from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that would gut health care coverage, enable insurance companies to jack up costs, and create more bureaucratic hurdles for millions of working Americans who buy their own insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace. 

“Buried in the fine print of the Trump Administration’s own proposal are estimates from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reflecting that the proposed rule will kick two million eligible people off of their Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage, increase premiums for working Americans by nearly $3 billion over the next four years, and impose over $360 million and an estimated 15 million hours in additional burdensome administrative requirements on consumers and states that operate their own Marketplaces,” the senators wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz.

The 2025 Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Proposed Rule would:

  • Create arbitrary burdens and costs for states while reversing standard practices in the ACA Marketplace. Working Americans will be forced to spend an estimated 15 million hours responding to new paperwork requirements or risk losing coverage altogether.

  • Allow insurance companies to raise costs and offer worse coverage. The impending expiration of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits passed in Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act will only lead to an even worse affordability crisis unless Republicans take action. 

  • Terminate insurance for eligible people who buy their own insurance, such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. Slashing a full month from the annual open enrollment period and taking away opportunities for low-income people to purchase coverage during the year will give people less time to choose the right affordable coverage option for them to stay healthy. 

“Republicans’ health care agenda is crystal clear: increase profits for for-profit insurance companies at the expense of working Americans by kicking people off coverage and raising health care costs. The Trump Administration’s efforts to frame these policies as improving program integrity are undermined by its own data, which estimate that millions of working people will lose the coverage they are eligible for, and those lucky enough to keep their coverage will face rising costs,” the senators continued.

In addition to Wyden, the letter is signed by Senators Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Peter Welch, D-Vt., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Mark Warner, D-Va., Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Tina Smith, D-Minn., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis, Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Angus King, I-Maine, Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai’i. 

Wyden is a longtime champion of making health care more affordable and less burdensome for working Americans. In July 2024, Wyden introduced a bill to apply criminal penalties to rogue insurance brokers who are changing Americans’ ACA marketplace plans without their knowledge or consent, and take other steps to strengthen consumer health insurance protections. In January 2025, Wyden joined legislation to make the ACA’s premium tax credits permanent for Marketplace coverage.

The full letter is here. 

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