At Budget Hearing, Democratic Witness Delivers Powerful Testimony on Real-World Impacts of the Republican Health Care Crisis

WASHINGTON, DC — At today’s House Budget Committee hearing on rising health care costs, the Committee heard powerful testimony from Rena Bumbray-Graves, a home care worker from Woodbridge, Virginia, on the real-world consequences of the Republican health care crisis.

Bumbray-Graves, who was invited to testify by Ranking Member Brendan F. Boyle, described how her family’s monthly health insurance premiums jumped from $544 to more than $1,300 after Republicans allowed the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits to expire—forcing her to drop her coverage altogether. Despite working in health care and providing full-time care to two family members with severe disabilities, she is now uninsured and has been forced to stop taking prescribed medication because she cannot afford it.

Bumbray-Graves, a member of the Service Employees International Union, also answered questions from Ranking Member Boyle and other committee members on how the Republican health care crisis impacted her family.

To watch the full video of Ranking Member Boyle’s questions, click here.

Her testimony underscored the human cost of the Republican health care crisis and the urgent need for Congress to extend the ACA tax credits to lower premiums and protect coverage for millions of working families and caregivers across the country.

District-by-district data on the consequences of the Republican health care crisis is available on the House Budget Committee Democrats website here.

Witness testimony as delivered and video are below:

(Click for video of testimony as delivered)

Mrs. Bumbray-Graves’ testimony as delivered:

 Good morning and thank you for having me. My name is Joyce Rena Bumbray-Graves. I am 63 years old, and I live in Woodbridge, Virginia. I am a home care worker and a proud member of SEIU Virginia 512. Let me just start by saying that care is essential because everyone will need it at some point in their lives.

I am honored to carry on the legacy of black women and other women of color like myself, who have historically done the majority of care work in our country. I provide full-time care to my adoptive sister, Leah, who has spina bifida and scoliosis, and my great niece, Lisa, who has scoliosis and who is born with a small brain and is profound.

That means she cannot speak or feed herself and is completely dependent on others for basic life functions 24/7. Both ladies use wheelchairs. They came to live in my home in 2017, when my parents passed away, because I wanted to keep them with family and they cannot help themselves. I have already been working with Leah for over 10 years.

Both ladies have Medicare and Medicaid due to their disabilities. I work in health care and I can't afford health insurance. My husband is a freight driver and it would be very expensive for me to get insurance through his work. Instead, we both got our health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

We were paying $544 per month for our premiums last year, thanks to the Affordable Care Act tax credits. Now that these tax credits have been taken away, the premium went up to $1300 and something per month. We cannot afford that, so we dropped our plan. My husband will be able to get on his work's insurance in February, but it is too expensive to add me.

I am looking for other options, but I'm currently uninsured. Every day, I worry that if I get hurt or sick, I will have to suck it up and keep working in pain. I worry if I go to the doctor, emergency room, uninsured, I will get an outrageous bill that I cannot pay. My husband is uninsured right now until his work insurance starts next month.

However, he recently broke his arm, and without insurance we had to pay $300 to get his cast off and $300 for them to put a plastic thing on his arm. We paid the $300 because they would not see us if we didn't pay it at the front desk. But the other $300 we did not know we were going to have to acquire.

And we didn't have $600 to spend at that time, so we just paid something on it. But I was wondering, what would have happened if we didn't have the $300 to get the cast off? Would we just walk out of the office with the cast still on because we couldn't afford to have it taken off?

Would we have tried to get someone else to try to take it off? Right now, I just pray I can save another $300 because, when we go back to have the plastic thing taken off, we will have to pay the $300 to come in the office, and then we don't know how much they're going to charge to take it off his arm.

And if we don't come up with that, I don't know what I'm going to do. Everything is so expensive right now, and even the dollar store isn't a dollar anymore. It's $1.50 and more. My husband is on short-term disability because he cannot drive a truck with a broken arm. I still have two years before I turn 65 and can qualify for Medicare.

I have several medical conditions that I have to take care of every month. And I have developed COPD because of blood clots I got from pulmonary embolism. I never smoked. The blood clots have scarred my lungs, and I have to be on a blood thinner the rest of my life. I cannot afford to be off my Pradaxa for more than three days.

These prescriptions are very expensive out of pocket, and even with GoodRx. The doctor prescribed me another prescription that is over $300, and even with GoodRx, it's over almost $200. And I can't afford that. I work so hard to keep two people with disabilities alive, and I can't afford insurance myself.

I have already stopped my prescription for the powdered inhaler, which helps me breathe better, because I cannot afford it without insurance. And I want you as members of the Congress to see me and the people I care for. I want you all to know how serious this is for my situation. You all can vote yay or nay or whatever.

You'll be fine. But what about us? So please bring back those tax credits so that I can get my health care back. The Affordable Care Act was good insurance for me and my husband until y'all took those tax credits away, and it may not have been perfect, but you should be working to make it better, not more expensive.

These tax credits made it better. Look, I'm no policy expert. All I know is that last month I had health care, and this month I don't because I lost my tax credits. So, I need you all to bring them back. Thank you.

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