(West Lebanon, NH) – Today, Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02) and Congressman Peter Welch (VT-AL) joined Granite Staters and Vermonters who have experienced challenges accessing care through the individual market, as well as small business leaders from both sides of the Connecticut River, to call for actions to improve the Affordable Care Act. Kuster and Welch highlighted their plan, Solutions over Politics, a proposal to stabilize the Affordable Care Act’s individual market. The plan seeks to stabilize the individual market while protecting plans for people with pre-existing conditions, keeping costs down for lower income folks, promoting enrollment and ensuring everyone pays their fair share. The plan outlines ways to reduce churn in the market and draws bidding areas to ensure that rural areas aren’t left at a disadvantage.

Kuster and Welch were joined by Larry Huot, Owner of LaValley Building Supply; Rob Taylor, Executive Director of the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce, and constituents, among others.

“The Affordable Care Act is not perfect, and there are parts of the law that need to be fixed,” said Congresswoman Kuster. “However, repealing the ACA would be a disaster. It would strip protections for pre-existing conditions, threaten our response to the opioid epidemic, and cost thousands of Granite Staters and millions of Americans their insurance. It’s long past time Republicans and Democrats came together to improve the ACA and ensure all Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance. I’m proud to be here with my friend Congressman Welch to discuss our commonsense proposals to improve the ACA and hopefully bring together our colleagues to work on behalf of the American people.”

“Rather than repealing or replacing a landmark law that has expanded quality health care to millions of Americans, the focus of Congress should be on improving the Affordable Care Act,” said Congressman Welch.  “We can build bipartisan consensus by taking steps to stabilize the individual market, where premiums have skyrocketed.  These commonsense reforms will help make health care more affordable and accessible to all Americans.”

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