According to news reports this morning, President Trump is again demanding that Congress deliver on health care repeal, despite the fact that it’s been overwhelmingly rejected by voters and repeated analysis has shown it would cut coverage, increase costs and eliminate protections. The latest vehicle for partisan repeal appears to be the so called Graham-Cassidy-Heller bill, which represents another partisan, secretive repeal effort which will gut coverage, slash Medicaid, raise out-of-pocket costs and weaken or eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Senate Republicans have a choice to make: do they embrace the bipartisan committee hearings beginning today that focus on improving our health care system, reducing costs and stabilizing the markets OR do they follow Trump’s demand for another hyper-partisan health care repeal?
OPTION 1: POLITICO: “Trump wants one last Senate push on Obamacare repeal”
OPTION 2: Washington Post: “Senate panel begins bipartisan hearings to try to improve Affordable Care Act”
“The reality is clear: voters have rejected health care repeal because it guts our health care system, rips away coverage and raises costs. Graham-Cassidy-Heller is more of the same,” said Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse. “Congress should listen to their constituents and reject the secret, partisan road to repeal. The American people expect Congress to work across the aisle and improve our health care system, not succumb to President Trump’s demands for a health care repeal.”
4 FACTS About The Latest Health Care Repeal Ploy (Graham-Cassidy-Heller)
I UNPOPULAR. New polling shows 60% of people oppose the GOP’s health care repeal bills while only 25% support it. That’s down from 48% unfavorable, 45% favorable back in March. The GOP health care repeal effort is the most unpopular legislation in over 30 years according to an analysis by MIT professors.
II SECRET. Despite commitments to oppose secretive processes on health care, the proposal still has had No public legislative language, section-by-section analysis or meaningful description; No public Congressional Budget Office estimates; No apparent consultation with experts; and No apparent inclusion of women Senators in the process.
III HARMFUL. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found the plan would “cause many millions of people to lose coverage, radically restructure and deeply cut Medicaid, increase out-of-pocket costs for individual market consumers, and weaken or eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”
IV WORSE. The latest analysis found this plan would be worse than the already-rejected health care repeal bills. Vox reports it would be “arguably be more disruptive, not less, to the current health care system. It would let money currently spent on health insurance go toward other programs, providing no guarantee that the Affordable Care Act programs individuals rely on today would continue into the future.”
