Today, the day of the only scheduled hearing on the GOP’s newest secret, partisan repeal bill, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) released yet another version of their bill. Like previous iterations, this bill would raise costs, lower options and end Medicaid as we know it — and go even further removing protections for people with pre-existing conditions. If Sens. Graham and Cassidy thought releasing a new version of their bill would make it better, they were highly mistaken. Take a look for yourself:
“The new version of Cassidy-Graham may be crueler and more cynical than the last.”
“[T]he new version appears to go further in weakening protections for sick people, apparently to win over conservatives who continue to express reservations, such as senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee.”
“The bill continues, however, to give states broad new authority to allow insurance companies to provide skimpier plans with far fewer benefits while charging higher premiums to the sick and the old.” [
“The new draft attempts to win over skeptical conservatives by further weakening consumer protections for Americans in bad health.”
“States would have even more flexibility to roll back some of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance regulations — including the guarantees it provides for people with pre-existing conditions.”
“‘This is like legislating blind…It is really hard to find an example of something where Congress was this reckless.”
“Only a few Republican senators care about the substance of the bill.”