Carper Statement on House GOP’s Broken Approach To Health Care Reform

WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, released the following statement after the House of Representatives voted to approve the American Health Care Act – legislation that would take health coverage away from more than 20 million Americans. The bill, which passed by a slim margin of 217 to 213, has not yet been scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

“From the campaign trail to the White House, President Trump made a promise to every American that he would deliver greater access to health insurance, that he would improve the coverage people receive, and that all of it would cost far less than we pay now.

“The sad reality is that this bill will cause more than 20 million Americans to lose their health insurance. It cuts more than $800 billion from Medicaid, devastating our country’s promise to care for seniors – our parents and our grandparents – who are living in nursing homes, our disabled, our working mothers and fathers, our children and people struggling with opioid addiction. This bill would put Americans with a pre-existing condition – whether it’s a child with asthma or autism, a pregnant mother, a domestic abuse survivor, a father with cancer, or a recovering addict – back at the mercy of insurance companies that will look to their bottom line to decide who deserves health care and at what cost.

“Instead of going it alone, Republicans should work with Democrats to improve our health care system so that it’s more affordable for hardworking Americans. The bill passed today doesn’t do that. Moreover, an undertaking of this magnitude must be done on a bipartisan basis with input from patients, their families and their health care providers. I stand ready to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do what’s right for our country.”

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