Rep. Joe Kennedy III Tuesday argued emotionally for keeping Obamacare, saying there was an intern from his own office who was saved twice by coverage through the Affordable Care Act.
"In that hearing for 28 hours that I was in last week, while you heard story after story from my Republican colleagues saying how disastrous this was, there was also an intern in there from my office whose life was saved twice by the Affordable Care Act," the Massachusetts Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
"She's 25 years old and had cancer now twice, and because of the Affordable Care Act, not only did she get access to the treatment that she needed, but her family could afford it, she could get insurance and she's covered now going forward," Kennedy continued.
The law has done good things for people in need, Kennedy, choking up a bit, told the program.
"That, at its heart, is supposed to be what healthcare is all about," said Kennedy. "It's about how we treat each other in a time of need. The idea that the answer to that question for some of my Republican colleagues is stripping people from healthcare, giving them so-called choice between paying their mortgage and paying their health insurance and their medication and saying that's good for our country, that's just mind boggling.
Kennedy appeared on the program with Rep. Thomas Suozzi, D-NY, to argue in favor of keeping the Affordable Care Act. Suozzi commented that Kennedy was "right on point," as "these are people's lives we're talking about."
Kennedy admitted that there are some challenges in Massachusetts concerning keeping Obamacare, and he'd like to work with his Republican colleagues on some of those issues, particularly when it comes to the costs for small businesses.
"However, there's nobody across Massachusetts that believes that the right way to reform our healthcare system is by kicking 24 million people off their healthcare, and that's exactly what this bill does."
Suozzi said that while there's a lot of politics behind keeping or repealing Obamacare, at the end, "these are people's lives we're talking about."
He noted he's a freshman congressman, but wants to try to work across party lines.
"If we could get beyond — and it's not going to happen right now, you can see the environment. If we could get beyond the politics and talk to each other and figure out where we can find some common ground and actually make things better for people," said Suozzi. "People want that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.