WASHINGTON – Today, following oral arguments in the high-stakes King v. Burwell case at the Supreme Court, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was joined by U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) and beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to affirm that the ACA, as written, is crystal clear and that a flawed, politicized decision in King v. Burwell could strip more than 8 million Americans of health coverage and raise the cost of health care premiums by more than 35 percent for millions more.

Highlights from the press conference are below:

Remarks by Senator Murphy: “…there is no doubt that the Affordable Care Act is working. It’s working for the 11 million people who have signed up all across the country for private health care exchanges; it’s working for the 10 million people who have enrolled in Medicaid expansion because of this bill; it’s working for taxpayers who are seeing the slowest rate of increase in federal health care spending in a generation, and it’s working for patients as we transition from a system that reimburses based on the volume of medicine practice to the quality of the medicine practice...”

“The text of the law is clear; the intent is clear…They’re reading one line and ignoring the rest of the bill. They are correct that there’s a line that says that subsidies will go to state exchanges. There is another line that says if a state fails to establish an exchange, the federal government shall establish the exchange for them…If you read the full bill, there’s no question about what the letter of the statute says.”

Remarks by Senator Franken: “I was actually there when this was written and passed into law, and I know what our intention was…The intent was for every state in the union. Now, the Republicans and plaintiffs in this, what they basically did was take one of those metal detectors on the beach, and found a coin, and said this beach is the U.S. Treasury. And then they reverse engineered an argument. This unravels the ACA if the court decides for the plaintiffs…people with pre-existing conditions will no longer be able to get covered….lifetime caps will be back, and you will go bankrupt if you get sick…”

Remarks by Vanita Johnson, beneficiary of the ACA: “In 2012, my youngest daughter discovered a lump on one of her breasts. Her doctor recommended that we schedule surgery as soon as possible…but without insurance we couldn’t have the operation done. In 2013, I was able to enroll in a plan that would allow me to afford health coverage…soon after…my daughter was able to have the lump in her breast removed…Today, I am working a job that doesn’t have health insurance; the health insurance marketplace is the only place I can get coverage at an affordable rate…But if the subsidy were to be taken away, I wouldn’t be able to afford the premiums, and I would be right back to where I was…without any insurance. And I know millions of other Americans would be in the same position. Let us not go backwards, but let us press forward.”

Remarks by Terry Donald, beneficiary of the ACA: “In 2004, I had several accidents at home: one of them took me to the emergency room in the hospital – relatively minor; the second I got an infection from a cut that sent me to the hospital for a week. In total, those two events brought a total billing to the insurance company of nearly $100,000. If it had not been for the Affordable Care Act...it would have meant financial ruin. One of the biggest reasons that I have health insurance, and particularly a policy as good as we have, is because of the subsidies that are available…For me and many small business owners, the subsidy is an absolute lifeline. The difference it makes financially, medically, and emotionally cannot be overestimated.”