Sanders, AOC Blast GOP Sabotage of US Healthcare During Shutdown Town Hall

Two weeks into the government shutdown that was triggered when Democrats in Congress refused to help the Republican Party rip healthcare subsidies and coverage away from millions of Americans, two of the top progressive lawmakers in the US were resolute Wednesday night at a town hall held by CNN.

Democrats, said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) "need to see ink on paper"—legislation that is passed in the House and Senate and signed by President Donald Trump to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies—before they agree to a spending package to reopen the government.

"I don't accept IOUs, I don't accept pinky promises, that's not the business that I'm in," said Ocasio-Cortez when CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins asked her and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) whether Democrats would accept "commitments from the White House and Republicans," who have claimed they will hold votes on healthcare after the government reopens.

Ocasio-Cortez added that she would not support a Republican proposal for a one-year extension of the subsidies, which help millions of Americans pay for monthly health insurance premiums for coverage purchased through the ACA marketplace. Once the subsidies expire—as they are currently set to at the end of 2025—KFF has estimated that the average ACA premium will more than double.

Whether at the end of this year or after next year's midterm elections, said the congresswoman, "what we will not accept is for the ACA premiums to skyrocket on the American people."

"What we will not accept is the doubling of these premiums. And what we will not accept is allowing the teetering of this system to collapse right before everyone’s eyes,” she said.

Republicans have persisted in repeating the baseless claim that instead of opposing skyrocketing health insurance costs, Democrats are refusing to vote for a continuing resolution to reopen the government—which needs 60 votes to pass in the Senate—because they want to give "free healthcare" to undocumented immigrants.

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for coverage under the ACA, Medicaid, or Medicare. The Republicans' massive, broadly unpopular One Big Beautiful Bill Act stripped legal asylum recipients, green-card holders, and other legal permanent residents of their eligibility for those healthcare programs, a provision which Democrats have called to reverse.

When asked whether the US should provide healthcare for undocumented immigrants at the town hall, Ocasio-Cortez took aim at the "common lie" that's been spread by GOP leaders including Vice President JD Vance—and vehemently defended the established statute, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires all hospitals that participate in Medicare to provide emergency treatment to anyone who needs it, regardless of immigration status.

"I don't know about you, but me, as a human being, I don't want to live in a world where if a human being is struck by a car or is getting rushed into a hospital, that people in the ER surgical room are asking for your insurance information or asking for documents before they save your life," said the congresswoman.

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez expressed empathy with federal workers who are missing paychecks as a result of the shutdown, and told audience members who are unable to obtain government-backed loans to buy a home or struggling with a loss of income that they aim for the shutdown to end "as quickly as possible."

But Ocasio-Cortez rejected one suggestion from an audience member who pointed out that about 80% of people who benefit from ACA subsidies live in states that voted for Trump and in "rural, mostly Republican areas."

"If the Republicans are so insistent on sticking it to their own voters on this issue, why don't the Democrats just let them?" asked the town hall participant.

The question illustrated how Trump is "dividing this country," said Sanders, who pointed out that he and Ocasio-Cortez have spoken to large crowds in rural, conservative areas as part of his Fighting Oligarchy Tour.

"It also speaks to a big difference between someone like Trump and someone like me, and someone like Bernie," said Ocasio-Cortez. "Trump believes that if you don't vote for him, he doesn't have to be your leader... I don't care if someone voted for me or not. I don't care if someone is a Republican or an independent or a Democrat... That will never change the fact that I'm going to fight for them to have healthcare."

"And that is the difference," she said, "between a strongman and an authoritarian, and a leader of a democracy."