HUME: Senator Durbin, let me just cite a couple of examples and let you respond to them. We — I think we have something put up on the screen on some of these premium increases.
In the state of Maryland, BlueCross BlueShield up 52 percent in 2018. You can see in New York, 49 percent BlueCross BlueShield. Cigna in n Virginia, 45 percent. Anthem in Connecticut, 34 percent. Delaware, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield up 34 percent.
Those are pretty sharp increases and those are just a sample. Senator, it seems to me that — to complain that the premiums may go up under this plan, it seems to me they’re going up pretty seriously under the present situation. Are they not?
DURBIN: The Congressional — Brit, the Congressional Budget Office, when they analyze the House approach, which is similar to the Senate approach as we have seen it, has said that this is a stable insurance market and need — there’s need obviously for us to work in individual insurance marketplace with 5 or 6 percent of Americans who go there.
But in the meantime, when you go to the insurance company executive and say, why are you pulling out of markets, why are you raising premiums? They say the uncertainty in Washington since the arrival of President Trump who from his first executive order has been undermining health insurance and the Affordable Care Act, cutting out the individual marketplace, which would expand insurance pools and bring premiums down, cutting off the assistance for those who need help in paying for premiums. These are the things that are sabotaging and undermining the Affordable Care Act.
HUME: OK.
DURBIN: You can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim a death spiral why you’re choking assistance to death.