CBO Proves Republican Health Care Repeal Is Always Devastating

(Nashville, Tennessee) It doesn’t matter what version of health care repeal Republicans put forward, they’ve each proven to be completely devastating for the American people – cutting coverage, raising costs, gutting Medicaid and weakening protections — just to give the wealthy and  drug and pharmaceutical companies another tax break.

 

The newly-released CBO report on their latest health care repeal attempt proves it yet again – 22 million people lose coverage, premiums go up 20% and is 26% gutted from Medicaid while giving $364 billion in tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.

 

They keep promising it will get better but there is no way to fix repeal. It is always devastating.

 

See for yourself…

 

	First House Bill	House Passed Repeal	BCRA (June Senate Bill)	Repeal No Replace (July Senate Bill)	BCRA Redux (Second July Bill)
Cutting Coverage	24 million	23 million	22 million	32 million	22 million
Raising Premiums	20 percent	20 percent	20 percent	25 percent (100 percent by 2026)	20 percent
Cutting Medicaid	$880 billion	$834 billion	$772 billion	$842 billion	$756 billion
Tax Breaks for Wealthy & Corporations	$544 billion	$664 billion	$541 billion	$613 billion	$364 billion

 

Given how every version of health care repeal has been devastating according to CBO, it makes sense that a growing group of Republican Senators are saying they should abandon repeal.

 

• Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS): “We must now start fresh with an open legislative process to develop innovative solutions that provide greater personal choice, protections for pre-existing conditions, increased access and lower overall costs for Kansans.” [7/17/17]

 

• Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME): “The solution, Collins said, is to tackle health care through ‘the normal process of committee hearings, expert witnesses, and writing a bill with bipartisan support.” [7/16/17]

 

• Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK): “As I’ve been saying, the Senate should take a step back and engage in a bipartisan process to address the failures of the ACA and stabilize the individual markets. That will require members on both sides of the aisle to roll up their sleeves and take this to the open committee process where it belongs.” [7/18/17]

 

 

• Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): “The Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation’s governors so that we can produce a bill that finally provides Americans with access to quality and affordable health care.” [7/17/17]

 

 

By a 2-to-1 margin (50% – 24%), people prefer the Affordable Care Act over the GOP’s repeal according to the newly released Washington Post/ABC poll.