Health Care
Health care is a right, not a privilege. For his entire career, Rep. Larson has been focused on lowering costs and increasing access to health care.
Now, he’s fighting back against President Trump and Congressional Republicans as they try take away your health care and drive up costs for American families.
Standing Against Republican Attacks on Health
The so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” will have devastating consequences for the health of Americans if not reversed.
Under this law:
15 million Americans will lose their Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage, including 186,580 Connecticut residents.
Enrollees in Access Health CT plans will see premiums rise an average of $1,500 next year, with some households will seeing increases of over $20,000.
Medicare may be forced to make over $535 billion in cutsover the next ten years, hurting doctors and hospitals.
Over a million seniors will be removed from Medicare Savings Programs, which provide low-income seniors with financial assistance to cover out-of-pocket medical expenses.
This law pays for tax cuts for the wealthy by slashing health care for everyday Americans. Rep. Larson is committed to undoing these devastating cuts and working to protect and expand access to affordable health care for all Americans.
The Trump Administration is undermining public health by firing and defunding researchers and experts. To highlight the devastating impacts of these actions, Rep. Larson invited Berlin resident Kara Satalino as his guest to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress.
Rep. Larson brought Berlin Resident and mother, Kara Satalino, as his guest to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress in March 2025. She came to advocate for her daughter, Cecelia, who is living with Cystic Fibrosis, and is impacted by the Trump Administration’s cuts to medical research.
Kara is a mother of four and an active member of the Connecticut Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Her 9-year-old daughter Cecelia was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), a progressive genetic condition that affects the lungs, pancreas, and other organs and has benefited from Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health research that President Trump and Elon Musk’s ‘DOGE’ are trying to cut. Rep. Larson stands with Kara, Cecelia, and families across the district who depend on services and research from agencies across the federal government. He joined his Democratic colleagues to file a brief in court challenging these arbitrary and illegal cuts to medical research.
Securing Affordable Health Care for All Americans
Rep. Larson with then-House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Rep. John Lewis, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi leaving the Capitol after the House passed the Affordable Care Act
As Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Larson was instrumental in leading Democrats through over a year of debate to pass the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the most significant overhaul of the U.S. health care system in generations. He fought to protect people with preexisting conditions, hold insurance companies accountable, and help families achieve the peace of mind of affordable health insurance. The Affordable Care Act drastically reduced the number of people in the United States without health insurance coverage, including a 41% reduction in Connecticut's rate of uninsured residents in its first few years. Since the bill became law, 50 million additional Americans have enrolled in affordable health insurance.
Rep. Larson believes we can build on the Affordable Care Act to improve the program and ensure coverage is affordable for all families. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, Larson helped pass legislation to increase Affordable Care Act tax credits as part of the American Rescue Plan. These credits saved Connecticut families an average of $2,650 annually. He heard from one constituent who said, “I was paying $1,300 a month for my health care premiums. Now, I’m paying $20 a month. With the savings I have, I can now optimistically put aside the money I need to educate my two daughters."
The Inflation Reduction Act renewed these tax credits through 2025, but due to the failure of President Trump and Congressional Republicans to include these credits in their “Big, Beautiful Bill,” these credits are now in jeopardy, meaning many households could see their insurance premium costs skyrocket. Rep. Larson will keep fighting to make these credits permanent.
He is also a supporter of creating a “public option," for health insurance to ensure every American has an option for quality, affordable health care plan. A public option would also create market competition to drive the costs down on all plans. Rep. Larson voted for the public option in 2009, and authored legislation to create a new public option that would be available on marketplace exchanges.
Lowering Drug Prices
Rep. Larson has been a longstanding champion of efforts to lower prescription drug prices. He has introduced legislation to empower Medicare to directly negotiate the price of prescriptions throughout his career. It was signed into law by President Biden in 2022. Prior to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare was required by law to pay for prescription drugs at the rate set by drug companies. Now, thanks to that law, the Biden Administration negotiated the cost of ten of the most expensive prescription drugs, saving beneficiaries an estimated $1.5 billion in annual out-of-pocket costs. Medicare will continue to negotiate prices for more prescriptions, saving Medicare an estimated $100 billion over ten years.
The Inflation Reduction Act also includes:
A $35 per month dollar cap on insulin costs for Medicare
A new $2,000 out-of-pocket cap on drug costs for seniors
Penalties if Big Pharma raises drug prices faster than inflation
Rep. Larson believes now is the time to go further by extending price negotiation for all Americans. He helped introduce the Lower Drug Costs for American Families Act to do just that.
Expanding Medicare
Medicare is one of the most successful social programs in the United States. We need to do all we can to make sure the seniors receiving Medicare get the benefits they need to thrive and keep more money in their pockets. Rep. Larson is cosponsoring of the Medicare Dental, Vision, and Hearing Benefit Act, which would finally ensure essential services are covered by Medicare.
Protecting Abortion Rights
In 1990, under Rep. Larson’s leadership as then-State Senate President pro tempore, Connecticut became the first state to enshrine the right to safe and legal abortion into law since the Roe v. Wade decision. Rep. Larson knows that reproductive rights are human rights, and that access to abortion should be guaranteed like any medical service. However, the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has put countless lives in danger.
In response, Larson helped introduce the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would enshrine the right to safe and legal abortion into federal law. Rep. Larson is also an original cosponsor of the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, which would prevent states from criminalizing travel to other states for women to access reproductive health care.
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