WATCH: In Senate Floor Speech, Kelly Shares Stories from Arizonans Facing Spiking Health Care Costs

"When people can't afford health care, they stay in situations they shouldn't stay in just to keep their coverage. Survival, dignity, and freedom. That's what we're talking about when we talk about affordable health care."

Today, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly took to the Senate floor to share the stories of Arizonans already facing steep health care premium spikes as Congress delays action to extend tax credits that keep coverage affordable for millions of Americans, including more than 300,000 in Arizona.

These are some of the stories Kelly shared on the Senate floor from Arizonans who reached out to his office, highlighting what's at stake if Congress fails to act:

"I talked to a guy named Rusty from Tucson. He is a cancer survivor. He runs his own small business in Tucson and takes care of his mother, who is in memory care. He told me: 'I've been using the Marketplace for years. Last year, I paid $277 a month for my plan. I've now been told my premiums could jump to between $450 and $600 a month. That will not be sustainable short term or long term. The premium tax credit has made it affordable for those of us who need health insurance but can't go out to the general market. I have to have health insurance, but [there's] really no way I can afford what is about to happen.' Rusty is not asking for anything extraordinary, he is asking to keep what's already working for him-the ability to afford care while he works hard."

"Robin, who is 60 years old, lives alone in northern Arizona, and is trying to save for retirement. She said: 'These subsidies have been crucial in making health insurance affordable. I am struggling to pay for my living expenses as is. My work has not been enough to provide me with a full-time salary and although I do have some other form of income, it is still not enough for me to live on should my healthcare subsidy disappear. I feel like many of us, middle class Americans who are caught in a trap of helplessness because we do not qualify for other benefits, and yet we do not make enough in order to sustain a healthy quality of life considering how everything that we need to live on has increased in price. The expiration of these subsidies could lead to significant increases in healthcare costs and potentially make it difficult to maintain coverage.'"

"Cricket, who is 63, is a realtor from Phoenix. She's self-employed and not yet eligible for Medicare, so for the past eight years she's relied on the Affordable Care Act for her health coverage and if the tax credits go away her coverage could be unaffordable. She told me: 'Without it, I would have faced bankruptcy. If premiums rise or these subsidies go away, I could lose my home and everything I've worked for. Health care shouldn't be a privilege, it's a right.'"

"Daylene, from Casa Grande, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure 20 years ago when she turned 40. Doctors told her she might live one or two more years. She said because of these credits, she has been able to afford her insurance and medication that literally keeps her heart beating. She wrote: 'My monthly cardiac drug costs alone would be over $2,000 without my insurance from ACA.' She continued to tell me that these credits gave her more than health care, it gave her freedom to leave an abusive marriage because before that she relied on her husband to afford health care."

At the end of his remarks, Kelly urged his colleagues to think about the people they represent as they work to end the shutdown and extend these health care tax credits: "In Arizona, people like Rusty and Cricket and Daylene and Robin don't have lobbyists. What they have is faith that when they write to their senator, someone will listen. […] These are hardworking folks. They're doing everything right. They're not asking for special treatment, they're asking for all of us to work as hard for them as they do for their families. We can vote today to extend these tax credits and reopen the government. Arizonans are counting on us to do what's right-not for political points, but for people's lives."

Click here to watch and download Kelly's remarks.