Senate Democrats are taking their health-care-subsidy message straight to Republican states.
The goal: Winning hearts and minds as a federal government shutdown slogs into its second week.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the upper chamber’s top Democratic appropriator, will conduct a press call Thursday with local media in neighboring Idaho, according to her office. Murray, alongside Idaho state Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow and two Idaho retirees, is expected to argue that congressional Republicans are responsible for a potential rise in Idaho health care premiums.
“She will implore Republican leaders to come to the table as new signs indicate that Republicans are feeling that heat on their deeply unpopular position,” Murray’s office said in a statement.
While in Washington, D.C., Murray and other Senate Democrats are at the center of a fight over reopening the government that hinges on Democratic demands to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that help people who buy their health insurance from the marketplace.
Idaho is a focus for the press conference in part because the state’s health insurance enrollment deadline is on Oct. 15, two weeks earlier than the rest of the country.
It’s also an example of Democrats bringing their message into states without any federal Democratic lawmakers and little love for liberals. Democrats hope to capitalize on polling that shows voters support extending the tax credits.
Republicans maintain that they want to discuss reforming and extending the subsidies, but only once the government has reopened.
About 57% of enrollees in the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace live in Republican congressional districts, according to the nonprofit news organization KFF.
In a floor speech Tuesday, Murray said the 10 states where insurance premiums would spike the most if the subsidies expire were all ones that went for Trump in 2024 and have Republican senators.
“If you’re gonna not talk with us, then I beg my colleagues: At least talk to your constituents. See what this health care crisis looks for them,” Murray said on the Senate floor.