Senate health bill is a travesty on a fast track

This editorial appeared on Bloomberg View:

After consulting barely a fifth of their members and precisely zero hours of hearings, U.S. Senate Republicans released their health-care bill on Thursday. Like the bill passed last month by their colleagues in the House, the Senate’s bill is a travesty.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has yet to score the Senate bill, but it is broadly similar to the House bill, which the CBO predicted would cause 23 million Americans to lose health insurance over the next decade. Even if the Senate bill reduced that damage by half, it would qualify as a calamity, if not a crime.

Republican senators — like the House bill, this one is an exclusively partisan endeavour — are already raising qualms.

But they will have the opportunity to champion amendments over the course of several hours next week, before a vote is rushed through. When their work is done, no doubt a few extra million Americans will regain a tether to health care, and some funding for opioid addiction will likely be found. Congratulations in advance, senators.

Efforts to shame Republicans for this attack on the poor, old and sick, who will face the brunt of the cuts, are unlikely to succeed. The bill would shorten lives and undermine productivity for millions of working people who lose Medicaid or find their subsidies for purchasing health insurance reduced or eliminated. Republicans know this. Many have heard from constituents facing chronic or deadly illness who are desperate to preserve their access to health care for their children or themselves. But the legislators appear poised to pursue their goal, consequences be damned.