Maxwell Frost slams Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez, María Elvira Salazar for silence on health care premiums

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost says Florida Republicans should join the Democratic demand for health care subsidies.

At a press conference in Central Florida, the Orlando Democrat stood with constituents facing steep jumps in premiums. He suggested Senate Republicans were allowing a federal shutdown to continue because they want to pressure Democrats into supporting a budget that doesn’t extend subsidies.

But Frost said Republicans are hurting their own constituents with that stance. He also called out Florida colleagues, some by name.

“I think about three specific Republicans in South Florida. South Florida loves the Affordable Care Act,” Frost said.

He cited statistics from the Kaiser Family Foundation that show Florida is the state with the highest concentration of Insurance Marketplace users. Those stats show the four congressional districts in Miami-Dade are the four districts nationwide with the highest number of Affordable Care Act (ACA) beneficiaries. Three are represented by Republican U.S. Representatives.

“Who do we got down there?” Frost said, calling out U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar. “So many of her constituents are on the Affordable Care Act. Where is her voice on this? Mario Díaz-Balart. Where is his voice on this? Carlos Giménez. Where is his voice on this? Their constituents are the ones that are going to suffer, but they’re more scared of the President than they are of their own people.”

Díaz-Balart, a Hialeah Republican, represents the district with the highest number of ACA enrollees in the nation, around 300,000. Notably, he told Florida Politics earlier this month he would be open to a conversation about subsidies, but said that should only happen after Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government.

Giménez, a Miami-Dade Democrat, said he supports a one-year extension on subsidies, and co-signed a letter to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson urging a vote to do so to be a first order of business once the shutdown ends.

Salazar has repeatedly pointed at Democrats for the shutdown. Her office noted she has co-sponsored legislation to extend subsidies for a year, as well as to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funded and to prevent future shutdowns.

Frost in his press conference put the greatest responsibility for the threat to subsidies on President Donald Trump.

“What’s the President doing while families are receiving these letters, while families are logging into their Affordable Care Act portal to see how much they’re going to pay more for their health?” Frost said.

“The President is quite literally bulldozing the White House, building a $300 million ballroom for his billionaire friends. He’s partying at Mar-a-Lago, golfing, traveling the entire country, spending time in Asia and different parts of the entire world, and not spending time here in the United States, in Washington, D.C., figuring out how we’re going to open up the government and save health care.”

Frost was joined by state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, and Orange County Commissioner Maribel Gomez Cordero. Both said health costs are surging in Central Florida as well.

“Millions of working families are facing the skyrocketing health care costs. They’re facing cuts to Medicaid and the threat of losing affordable health care coverage altogether,” Smith said.

Frost brought up several constituents, including Nathan Boye, a diabetic father of three who was seeing his premiums jump from $28 a month to more than $700. He also mentioned Constance Brown, a nurse working for a nonprofit who is helping patients navigate a jump in premium costs as she deals with a spike in her own health insurance payments.