{"id":344301,"date":"2025-12-12T11:44:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344301\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:44:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:44:16","slug":"tuberville-says-obamacare-destroyed-health-care-as-extension-rejected-a-piece-of-sh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344301\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuberville says Obamacare \u2018destroyed\u2019 health care as extension rejected: \u2018A piece of sh–\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala<\/a>. in a floor speech<\/a> Thursday joined other Republican lawmakers rallying against the continuation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is, Obamacare destroyed\u2014absolutely destroyed\u2014our health care system,” Tuberville said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is completely unaffordable. As a result, American families are now paying the enormous price for Barack Obama and woke Democrats\u2019 Obamacare system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate surrounding Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer\u2019s proposal to extend COVID-era ACA subsidies has been ongoing in Congress for months and was at the heart of the recent 43-day government shutdown, <\/a>the longest in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers had insisted on a straight extension of the tax credits, which expire at the end of the year, as a condition of keeping the government open, according to the Associated Press.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Senate rejected the extension of health care subsidies, all but guaranteeing higher costs in 2026 for millions on ACA plans. <\/p>\n

In ending the shutdown, lawmakers agreed to work towards a solution for the subsidies\u2019 expiration, which will result in premiums doubling and more than 130,000 Alabamians losing access<\/a> to health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to fix it [Obamacare]. It\u2019s broken. It\u2019s a piece of sh\u2013\u2013,\u201d Tuberville told Raw Story this week.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a counterproposal Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced the GOP would offer to replace subsidies with health savings accounts, according to Raw Story.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats have created a broken system that needs to be repaired, and we\u2019re going to do that,\u201d Tuberville said Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad to see several of my Republican colleagues are working on this daily. I\u2019m hopeful that any Republican plan will focus on the main issue: affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuberville continued, \u201cthe only way to lower costs is through more competition and more transparency.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more plans to give Americans more of a choice when it comes to insurance plans,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the only way to drive costs down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuberville, who has recently garnered controversy<\/a> after making negative comments about various immigrant communities in the U.S.<\/a>, went on to blame part of the nation\u2019s healthcare crisis on undocumented patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats allowed 20-30 million illegals to come into this country under Joe Biden, many of whom came from third-world countries,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese illegals are now overrunning our emergency rooms, and you, the American taxpayer, are paying for it. Next time you go to the ER, see how long it takes you to get in and then blame the Democrats. And the next time a hospital in your town closes, as has happened all over my state of Alabama, blame the Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has issued similar statements in recent months, facing pushback from several organizations.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, under longstanding federal policy, undocumented immigrants already are ineligible<\/a> for federally funded health coverage.<\/p>\n

While undocumented immigrants do qualify for emergency room care under the Reagan-era Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, the foundation notes that less than 1% of total Medicaid spending goes to this emergency care.<\/p>\n

In the year 2023, the KFF showed that of the $860 billion total spent on Medicaid, only 0.4% of that, roughly $3.8 billion, went toward Emergency Medicaid for undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt<\/a>, R-Ala., recently said she is not in favor of a clean extension of ACA subsidies, but Punchbowl News<\/a> reported that she is trying to get President Donald Trump to agree to a plan on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd at the end of the day, Republicans have control of the Senate, the House, and the White House,\u201d Tuberville said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no excuse not to do something about this health care disaster. We need to come up with a plan that actually delivers for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a Republican or Democrat problem,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery American is getting screwed\u2014screwed over every day by this horrible health care system. The Republican Party is working to fix this. Let\u2019s grow a backbone and do what is right for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. in a floor speech Thursday joined other Republican lawmakers rallying against the continuation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[172185,97,252,253,56915,172305,18057],"class_list":["post-344301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-119th-congress","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-shutdown","tag-u-s-capitol","tag-votes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}