Maine’s Collins puts health bill on death watch with ‘no’ vote
The GOP’s last-ditch effort to repeal and replace Obamacare appears to have met its end after Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said she would vote against the bill, leaving it short of the votes it needed to pass.
The bill — sponsored by U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — would have severely cut federal Medicaid support, forcing states like Massachusetts that expanded coverage under Obamacare to either foot the bill or allow needy residents to go uninsured.
Groups from all corners of the health care industry have united in unprecedented opposition.
“I’ve never seen insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, patient groups, all of them lined up on the same side,” said Julius Hobson, a D.C.-based health care lobbyist and former head of congressional relations for the American Medical Association. “Republicans made a campaign promise, and then when the time came, they didn’t have anything.”
Last week, the Massachusetts Medical Society, patient advocacy group Health Care for All, and the Associated Industries of Massachusetts released a joint statement saying the estimated $5 billion in federal funds that the state would lose in Medicaid support would “strain the state budget and leave thousands of residents — including seniors, children and people with disabilities — without access to quality and affordable health care.”
U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey held an emergency health care meeting yesterday, where MMS president Dr. Henry L. Dorkin warned that the Graham-Cassidy bill would harm children with pre-existing conditions like asthma and cystic fibrosis by slashing their coverage.
Collins’ announcement came last night after the Congressional Budget Office released its analysis saying the measure would cut the number of people with health insurance “by millions.” U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul announced their opposition before Collins.
Only three “no” votes were needed from GOP senators to deal a fatal blow to the bill.
The Senate Committee on Finance convened yesterday to discuss the measure, but the hearing was delayed by activists chanting “No cuts to Medicaid. Save our liberty.”
One of the issues that doomed the Graham-Cassidy bill was its failure to address the current flaws in the Affordable Care Act — the major one being high premiums, said Sara Bleich, professor of public health policy at Harvard University.
“Obamacare is not perfect, but it’s hard to repeal it because there’s not much you can do in the fragmented system,” she said. “The intermediate step is to think about the things people are struggling with.”
But the bigger picture: the bill “would hurt people. And Republicans would be to blame for that.”