This government shutdown is about one thing: your health care.
We’re now almost two weeks into the shutdown, and MAGA Republicans still refuse to help us open the government and address the health care crisis that they created.
Let me be clear, no one wanted it to get to this point, including me.
But, this summer, when Americans were begging for financial relief, the administration passed their ‘Big Bad Betrayal Act’, a bill which gutted more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
Why? Because they wanted to pay for a multi trillion-dollar tax package that focuses on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and corporations.
The result? They created a health care crisis for working Americans.
The bill is the largest transfer of wealth from the working people to the rich in American history.
Now, 15 million Americans are on track to lose their insurance. Prices will skyrocket for families. Rural hospitals will close.
This isn’t a future scenario. It starts this month when folks will get notices about insurance premiums increasing for next year.
If Republicans let the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits expire, premiums across the country – on average – are going to DOUBLE starting next year.1 To put that into context, that means they’d be forcing some Coloradans to pay $1,000 more for health care in 2026 than they did in 2025.
That’s insane. And it means many Coloradans won’t be able to afford their health insurance.
So, Democrats decided to take a stand. I’ve been clear from the start, I won’t support Republican’s government funding bill until they work with us to protect Coloradans’ health care and lower prices.
Here’s what’s at stake if we don’t hold our ground:
I recently visited a nursing home in Lakewood, Colorado, where 90% of the residents rely on Medicaid to cover the cost of their long-term care.
I sat in a circle surrounded by residents and their caregivers, all trying to understand what these cuts meant for their health, for their lives.
One resident told me point blank that Medicaid saved his life. He said that he would still be living on the streets without it because the cost of his epilepsy medication was far too high.
His health care, his medication, the roof over his head, is now under threat with these cuts coming to Medicaid.
That’s who we are fighting for.
As governor, we expanded health care – and got to 96% coverage for Coloradans. Now, MAGA Republicans want to undo that progress, and we shouldn’t let that happen.
241,000 Coloradans are at risk of losing their health care – yet the White House and MAGA Republicans refuse to listen. Just take one look on social media and you’ll see them trying to make this health care crisis and the government shut down into one big joke.
But they can’t avoid the suffering and the fear that their actions are causing.
Americans elected this president because he PROMISED to fight for the people who slip through the cracks. Now he’s turning the very ground they stand on into quicksand.
They passed a bill to take health care from 15 million Americans. Americans with cancer, sick kids, people living in nursing homes!
Now, hundreds of rural hospitals and clinics are at risk of closure, millions of Americans are going to be uninsured. Many of them have preexisting conditions which will make getting insurance again nearly impossible. Millions more will face doubling health care premiums.
Democrats are fighting for one thing: to protect the essential care that millions of Americans rely on every single day.
It’s about making sure that moms and dads, little kids, grandparents, newborn babies don’t fall through the trillion dollar hole that MAGA has created in our health care system.
Let’s work together, let’s reopen the government AND protect the health care for the people of this country.
We’ll be waiting and ready at the negotiating table.