Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Residents rally against new health care bill
Graham-Cassidy legislation has little chance of passing after 3 GOP senators say they’ll vote ‘no’
WEST CHESTER » Demonstrators rallied at U.S. Ryan Costello’s, R-6, office at the Historic Chester County Courthouse Monday afternoon, calling for lawmakers to reject the latest version of GOP health care bill that would repeal and replace Obamacare.
“This will cost Pennsylvanians millions of dollars until 2026,” said MaryAnn Piccioni, who helped to organize the rally. “It will destroy everything people benefit from in the Affordable Care Act.”
The Graham-Cassidy-proposal, Piccioni said, threatens the health and financial security of tens of millions of Americans, including older adults, low-and moderate-income families, people living with disabilities, veterans and people with pre-existing conditions.
In an effort to secure votes from holdout senators, Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, dedicated more money in the bill to Alaska and Maine.
“They are bribing senators to vote for this bill,” Piccioni said. “But the Graham-Cassidy bill takes away from Pennsylvania, which has expanded Medicaid.”
GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine had previously expressed concerns about the bill. Murkowski has not yet declared how she would vote on the measure. However, Collins announced Monday evening she would vote ‘no’ on the bill. Two other GOP senators had already declared they would vote against the Graham-Cassidy bill, which likely means Republicans won’t have enough votes to pass it.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is one of the GOP senators against the bill, reiterated his opposition to the updated mea-
sure. Sen. John McCain of Arizona has already objected to the bill on the grounds that there has been no bipartisan outreach.
Frank Pennington, a minister at a local church, attended the rally because he said Americans deserve universal health care, and Obamacare comes closer to universal health care than any other health care plan.
“We are one of the few countries in the world that does not have universal health care,” Pennington said. “There is enough to go around. The Affordable Care Act needs to be reformed, not replaced.”
Republican leaders in Washington are racing to pass legislation before losing the budget authority on Oct. 1 that allows them to pass legislation by a simple majority.
The Cassidy-Graham bill would overhaul the Affordable Care Act by lumping together the current law’s spending on insurance subsidies and expanded Medicaid and redistributing it to states in the form of block grants. Alaska would get 3 percent more funding between 2020 and 2026 than under current law, and Maine would get 43 percent more funding during that period under the updated bill.
On Friday, about three dozen demonstrators picketed outside Costello’s West Chester office, with signs reading “Save Medicaid,” and “TrumpCare will make America Sick.”
The protesters are organized and plan to keep the pressure on their local lawmakers, urging them not to scrap Obamacare.
“We want to thank Costello because he did vote against the previous bill, recognizing it would take away pre-existing conditions, just as this bill does, takes away from Pennsylvanians, just as this bill does, and punishes seniors for being old” Piccioni said.
According to a recent report by the non-partisan think tank Avalere, Pennsylvania would lose $6 billion in federal funding by 2026 and $131 billion in federal funding by 2036 under the current health care plan under consideration.