Health care, again
Under cover of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the Senate has schemed to strip coverage.
Natural disasters have a way of grabbing all the attention. So while Harvey and Irma dominated the news, what was the United States Senate working on? That hallowed body — while you were digging out of the rubble — was trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Again.
Congress needs to stop wasting political capital rehashing these sorts of partisan fights and get back to work on helping the Gulf Coast recover.
The proposed bill, authored by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, threatens the same sort of harm as past Trumpcare efforts.
The bill will weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, alcohol or drug addiction, pregnancy or mental health issues. Millions of Americans will lose their insurance coverage. Prices will skyrocket for working-class families that rely on subsidies to afford health care.
But Graham-Cassidy doesn’t merely unwind parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The bill also completely rewrites Medicaid. The state-federal insurance system, which covers children, pregnant women, the poor, the elderly and people with disabilities, will be transformed into a grant program. Politicians will have newfound control over how health care dollars are spent. Power will be stripped away from doctors and patients.
Donald Trump actually ran for office on a promise of leaving Medicaid untouched. However, big-money donors have threatened to withhold campaign donations unless Republicans start slashing key safety-net programs.
If these millionaires and billionaires get their way, Congress will end up passing a massive overhaul of our national health care system without hearings from doctors, hospitals, nurses, patients or insurance companies. There will be no scoring from the Congressional Budget Office to determine exactly how many people will lose their coverage or how much it will cost. So why the rush? While local leaders are focused on hurricane season or timelines for Army Corps of Engineers projects, politicians in Washington live by a calendar that’s bizarrely disconnected from the day-to-day lives of their constituents. Senators are trying to meet a Sept. 30 deadline for passing bills under a procedure known as reconciliation, which allows certain kinds of spending bills to avoid the 60-vote threshold needed to break filibusters.
Americans deserve a bill written to make health care affordable for every family, not one designed to meet a bureaucratic timetable.
That’s why Congress should unite behind bipartisan efforts led by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., to shore up the Affordable Care Act.
But instead of seeking a common ground, a small cabal has used the chaos and suffering of Harvey and Irma as cover to resurrect a once-doomed Trumpcare bill. Don’t let them get away with it. Call Sens. John Cornyn (202-2242934) and Ted Cruz (202-224-5922) — check out their websites for local office contacts — and tell them to vote no on Graham-Cassidy.