Stage set for latest ACA vote
Trump weighs in again, so do nuns
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump badgered Republican senators Monday to vote on a health care bill this week, while Nevada nurses, hospitals and religious groups told lawmakers the results would have dire consequences for the state.
“Any senator who votes against starting debate is telling America that you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare,” Trump said from the White House.
Trump stepped up his prodding of Republican senators, who are expected to vote Tuesday on a parliamentary measure to begin debate. But opposition to Senate Republican plans to health care also increased.
A new report said Medicaid cuts in the Senate health care bill could cost Nevada $16 billion in lost funds, prompting the Nevada Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association and the Epis
SENATE
copal Diocese of Nevada to oppose repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
And 7,150 Catholic Sisters from all 50 states sent a letter to the Senate asking them to reject the bill and any efforts to repeal the ACA, known as Obamacare.
“We have seen early and avoidable deaths because of a lack of insurance, prohibitive costs and lack of quality health care,” said Sister Simone Campbell, who authored the letter.
But Trump used his social media account and delivered a stern messagefrom the White House warning GOP senators that failure to take action on Obamacare, either through repeal or replacing the law, would have political consequences.
Republicans have vowed for seven years to throw out Obamacare, which was passed and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010 without one GOP vote.
Trump said, for Senate Republicans, the vote “is their chance to keep their promise.”
Since taking control of the House, Senate and White House, Republicans have struggled to follow through with their pledge to toss out the law that expanded coverage to millions of people, imposed taxes to fund new programs and prevented insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions.