For Immediate Release: Monday, June 26, 2017
Contact: Robyn Shapiro, robyn.shapiro@
CBO Score Says It All: Senate GOP Bill Will Wreck America’s Health Care to Give Tax Breaks to the Rich
The following is a statement from Margarida Jorge and Ethan Rome, co-directors of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), following the release of the CBO score on the Senate GOP repeal bill.
“As the CBO score confirms, the Senate repeal bill will make everything worse for everyone across the country except millionaires and big corporations.
“The numbers tell the entire story – this bill fundamentally reshapes America’s health care and one-sixth of the economy to take from the poor and middle class to give to the very rich. Simply put, it’s the most massive transfer of wealth in the history of our country. It shocks the conscience that senators would cut $772 billion in life-saving Medicaid to pay for $541 billion in tax breaks to the rich.
“This bill is not just abhorrent; it’s lousy policy. Just like the House bill, the Senate GOP bill does the exact opposite of what a good health care measure should do – it makes people pay more to get less. The Senate bill will take health care away from 22 million Americans, weaken coverage and consumer protections for everyone with private insurance, increase premiums by 20 percent in the next year, defund Planned Parenthood, and end Medicaid as we know it – all to give tax breaks to the very wealthy and insurance and drug companies.
“The GOP bill is wrong for America and the Senate should reject it.”
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Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is the national grassroots coalition that ran a $60 million five-and-a-half year campaign from 2008-2013 to pass, protect, and promote the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and protect Medicare and Medicaid. HCAN has come back together to fight the Republicans’ all-out effort to take away America’s health care and put people at the mercy of the health insurance companies again.
