State leaders pan health care bill

Malloy certain ‘people will needlessly die’ under plan

WASHINGTON » U.S. Senate Majority Mitch McConnell hailed it as a way for the nation to “transition away from Obamacare’s collapsing system entirely, so more Americans will not be hurt.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., had a different impression of the health care bill unveiled Thursday by Senate Republicans.

“McConnell has a thin needle to thread,” Murphy said on MSNBC, noting that Republicans are hoping for a Senate vote prior to the July 4 recess. “You might see some political theater that plays out between now and next week.”

Murphy said McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, “knows this bill is a loser. It makes no sense and it doesn’t solve a single problem in our health care system.”

Others in Connecticut’s deepblue Democratic cadre echoed Murphy’s condemnation.

“Make no mistake, people will needlessly die under this plan,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in a statement. “It should come as no surprise that Republicans preferred to hash out the details of this bill behind closed doors, rather than give the American people the opportunity to understand what is going to happen to their families.”

And as Senate Republicans took the wraps off their secretive bill — mixed bag of sweeteners and bitter medicine compared to what House Republicans approved last month — the GOP’s own hopes of party unity were rebuffed by four conservative senators.

The Republican Senate bill will not “accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: To repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs,” said a statement by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.