Obama: Republican health bill cuts care for millions
BARACK OBAMA has blasted the Republican Party’s new healthcare bill as “a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America”.
In an impassioned open letter on Facebook, the former president pleaded with US lawmakers not to dismantle the Affordable Care Act — known as Obamacare — which he considers one of the signature achievements of his time in the White House.
Yesterday the Republican leadership in the Senate released a draft bill to replace it, with a vote set for next week. The new law would slash government support for Medicaid, which provides healthcare for poor Americans, and eliminate Obamacare’s taxes on the wealthy and insurance companies.
Appealing to Congress and the US people, Mr Obama said the 142-page plan had a “fundamental meanness” at its core and was “not a healthcare bill”. He added: “It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting healthcare for everybody else.
“Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums ... with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.”
Obamacare has been credited with expanding health coverage to many more Americans. It requires individuals to take out health insurance, makes most businesses offer it to staff, provides subsidies to make it more affordable, and expands Medicaid.
The Senate is considering a bill to replace it after the House of Representatives passed their own version. Republicans have been criticised for drafting the Better Care Reconciliation Act in secret. Yesterday 43 protesters were arrested at the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The Democrats oppose it and several Republican senators have objected, making its passage uncertain. Even if it passes it would have to go back to the House for a vote before landing on Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.