DPCC Co-Chair Dingell: Democrats Are Fighting For Lower Health Care Costs

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WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on The Last Word on MSNBC to discuss how Democrats are fighting For The People to lower health care costs. Over the weekend, over 140 Democrats held events or online town halls to talk about health care and efforts to protect people with preexisting conditions and lower drug prices. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video.

"We heard from individuals with juvenile diabetes, we heard from a mother whose daughter's medicine was costing her $400,000 a year. She's keeping and staying employed though she's eligible for retirement because she doesn't know how else she's going to pay for her daughter's medicine and doesn't know what's going to happen to her when she's 26. We heard from an adult, a young woman who was in her 20s who works at the University of Michigan - her husband is an engineer with general motors. She's a juvenile diabetic. And how much with those two good insurance plans how much her health care is costing her. [She] needs to go to Canada to buy her insulin and other medicines that she's had. And we heard from the chief medical doctor at the hospital we were at who had a patient today that was in intensive care who would be okay if they could take a medicine for 14 days. This patient had insurance, but the insurance company wouldn't pay for the medicine, so they can't give the patient the medicine the person needs - so that patient's stays in intensive care not getting the medicine they need. Pretty frightening stories."

"This is an Administration in the courts wanting to take away…the Affordable Care Act [which] guarantees people with pre-existing conditions that they would be able to get coverage. And now that's being threatened. And I will tell you in Michigan, health care is one of the number one issues. I hear it every place I go. From farmers markets to restaurants, people are scared. And they feel that there's a hypocrisy here when the President won't defend pre-existing conditions. And I will tell you something, I will work with anybody to lower the cost of drugs; to lower the cost of out of pocket expenses because that's all I hear about every day from all kinds of people. I will work with any Republican…instead of trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, we need to work with each other to help lower prescription drug prices. That's what people want to see. And they want to see us work together to get it done. They're tired of partisan bickering."