Livingston County’s representative in Congress is blaming the Trump Administration following a report from the Census Bureau that says the number of uninsured Americans is rising.

A report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that nearly 2 million more people were uninsured in 2018 than were in 2017. The number of uninsured Americans rose to 8.5%, or roughly 27.5-million people. This marks the first time since the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, took full effect that the number has risen.

8th District Democrat Elissa Slotkin said in a release that this news “confirms what we have long known: the Administration’s continued attempts to chip away at our healthcare and charge more or deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions is putting us on a reverse course toward a greater healthcare burden on families.”

President Trump and many Republicans have long maintained that the ACA is flawed, while many Democrats believe that it is being constantly undermined by Republican lawmakers. Slotkin said that she believes the nation has evolved to agree on fundamental principles that everyone deserves access to healthcare they can afford, that people shouldn’t be gouged for having a pre-existing condition, and that if you get sick, you shouldn’t go broke.

Slotkin, who says she has made a concerted effort to work with Representatives on both sides of the aisle for healthcare reform, urged the President and her colleagues to also do so in accomplishing those principles. (MK/JK)