In a way, you have to give Senate Republicans credit. Just when you thought they could not craft a more irresponsible or heartless measure than their first attempt to repeal Obamacare, they fooled us all.
Yes, if you thought that first repeal bill, for which Republicans couldn’t even round up 50 votes a couple of months ago, was bad, hold on to your hat. This new bill, crafted by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., is far worse. It doesn’t just undermine Obamacare, it guts it entirely – and replaces it with nothing. This is not “repeal and replace,” this is repeal, period, and replace it with nothing.
Most Republican senators haven’t read the bill. I have. Here’s what the Graham/Cassidy bill would do. First, it kills Medicaid. In a massive redistribution of wealth, the bill takes money away from the 34 states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and gives it to 19 states that refused Medicaid expansion. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, for example, under that formula California would lose $27.8 billion; Ohio, $2.5 billion; Maryland, $2 billion.
Under the Graham-Cassidy plan, instead of funding for Medicaid, states would receive block grants they can use for any health care-related purpose, not necessarily to help the poor. And those grants expire in 2027. As a result, not only will 13 million Americans new to Medicaid, thanks to Obamacare, lose their health-care coverage, but all 70 million Americans already on Medicaid will see cuts in coverage or elimination of Medicaid altogether.
Graham-Cassidy would also repeal all the most popular and effective aspects of Obamacare. No more federal subsidies to help families buy health insurance. No more state or federal exchanges. States could qualify for a waiver allowing insurance companies to charge senior citizens higher premiums, or to end your health policy entirely if you get a serious illness and they think you’re costing them too much money.
And Jimmy Kimmel’s right about pre-existing conditions. Sen. Cassidy did lie to him on his TV show and is still lying to the American people. Under his bill, states could apply for a waiver allowing insurance companies to refuse to accept anyone with a pre-existing condition – like the heart defect Kimmel’s son William was born with.
How many millions of Americans will be hurt by the bill? We don’t know, because the Congressional Budget Office hasn’t yet scored the legislation, and may not have time to before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brings it up for a vote. But CBO reported that, under the last “repeal without replace” bill, 32 million would have lost their health insurance. Even more would be wiped out under Graham-Cassidy.
Not only does the bill stink, so does the process. Republicans are trying to ram it through by Sept. 30, the deadline for enacting a bill by “reconciliation” – requiring only 51 votes, not 60. The only way to meet that deadline is to abandon “regular order” and force senators to vote on legislation that would cause untold human suffering and upend one-fifth of the U.S. economy – with no Congressional Budget Office analysis, not one committee hearing, no opportunity to offer amendments and no testimony from doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, or representatives of the millions of average Americans with serious illness who depend on health coverage under Obamacare for themselves and their families.
Graham-Cassidy may, in fact, be the most irresponsible, cruel and coldhearted measure we’ve seen in our lifetime. How could anybody, Republican or Democrat, be callous enough to support it? Not one Senate Democrat does. And yet, by last count, more than 45 Republicans do. And that’s too scary for comfort.
Under reconciliation, with only 52 members, Republicans can only afford to lose two votes. That makes it a 50-50 tie, which Vice President Mike Pence would quickly break. If just three Republicans vote no, the bill is dead. Yet, as of this writing, only one Republican senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, is a confirmed “No” vote. It’s hard to believe, but three of those who voted against the first repeal effort – Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain – have not yet decided how to vote on a bill that’s so much worse.
No issue defines Republicans and Democrats better than health care. Democrats want to expand Obamacare until every single American is protected. Republicans want to deprive more than 32 million Americans of the health care they now enjoy. Don’t tell me there’s no difference between the two parties.
