“The draft GOP Senate bill to replace the Affordable Care Act will be a disaster for the American health care system. It would repeal the taxes levied on the wealthy that helped pay for Obamacare — perhaps its primary motivation. And it would drastically reshape Medicaid, a program that one in five Americans depend on for life-saving care — from the one in every two babies born to Medicaid recipients to the two-thirds of those in nursing homes whose care is covered by Medicaid.

“Under the Senate majority plan, Medicaid would be transformed from a program that guarantees needed health care to one that caps spending, whether care is compromised and people die, or not. The drastic cuts will occur over time, as money is cut and Medicaid is turned over to the states to set most of its rules. The knife will turn more slowly than if wielded by the House bill, and will cut deeper There will be no reversal to the Medicaid cuts, effectively ending the program as we know it. The bill would end Medicaid expansion in 2023, while in the meantime roll back crucial coverage protections for those enrolled in the expansion. Subsidies could no longer be used to purchase health plans that cover abortion. Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood would be cut off for one year—an underhanded way to defund Planned Parenthood. Further, the list of benefits established by Obamacare, from maternity care to mental health treatment and addiction care, will no longer be required of insurance companies.

“The Senate repeal/replace bill would constitute the most dramatic and cruel cutback of the social safety net in US history. Differing little from the House bill, it is opposed by a majority of people in every single state. It is an entirely gratuitous attack on efforts to ensure universal health care that began with the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s.

“Senators must hear from their constituents, loud and clear, that what is needed is a stronger Affordable Care Act, not a Trojan horse that in the end will demolish the federal role in health care that has evolved since the landmark legislation of the 1960s. The Senate plan will instead lead us back to the spaghetti suppers to pay for a neighbor’s cancer treatment or to today’s social media funding campaigns to secure a double lung transplants for a suffering friend. It must be stopped.”

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