President Donald Trump is intent on taking down healthcare in the U.S., Sen. Chris Murphy said Wednesday.
"We've seen premium increases, we've seen insurers start to pull out of marketplaces across the country this year, and they're pretty clear as to why they're doing that. President Trump is actively sabotaging the American healthcare system," Murphy, D-Conn., told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"He's doing that in a number of ways. He's told the IRS to stop enforcing the individual mandate, which is what holds together a lot of these exchanges. He won't pay the insurance companies more than one month at a time. If you're an insurance company, why would you stay in these marketplaces?" Murphy said.
"And so, insurers are pushing up rates and rethinking exchanges because of this sabotage. What Trump is trying to do is create a crisis that will force the Congress to rewrite the entire rules of the game," Murphy continued.
Uncertainty over those payments led to health insurer Anthem Inc. to announce on Tuesday that it would be exiting most of the Ohio market in 2018.
The senator said he believed that Americans see through Trump's efforts and "I don't think he's going to get away with it."
The Senate, Murphy continued, "is now potentially moving to a vote in a few weeks on a bill that maybe doesn't take coverage away from 23 million people like the House did, but might take coverage away from 15 million."
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