Editorial Boards: Reject The GOP Bill to Repeal the ACA, Force Americans to Pay More for Less
Mariel Saez 202-225-3130
On Monday night, Republicans released their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would kick millions of Americans off of their health coverage and force the American people to pay more for less coverage. As House Republicans mark up the bill today – without holding hearings and without an analysis from CBO on what the bill will cost or how it will impact consumers – newspapers across the country are voicing their opposition to the bill.
USA Today: What's the rush on health care?
“The plan to replace Obamacare offered by House Republicans stretches to more than a hundred pages. It deals with an impossibly complex subject, with myriad unintended consequences. It has not been ‘scored’ by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for its price tag and impact on those who have insurance. So what are Republicans planning to do? Rush it through.”
The Charlotte Observer:Obamacare repeal fails on two big fronts
“Don’t be fooled by Republican claims that ‘access to health insurance’ is akin to having actual health care coverage. Every American also has access to a BMW dealership – but only a relative handful can afford to buy a new expensive luxury car. That kind of thinking, though, seems to undergird the GOP plan, as evidenced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who suggested poor people could afford insurance if they just skipped their next iPhone purchase.”
“The American Health Care Act would make life easier for the healthy and wealthy and harder for the sick and poor.”
Bangor Daily News: GOP’s health care plan insures millions fewer at a higher cost
“Essentially, Republican lawmakers, led by House Speaker Paul Ryan, have cobbled together a plan that keeps the parts of the ACA that Americans like and jettisons — or renames — the unpopular parts. The result, the American Health Care Act, is a watered-down, less functional version of the ACA that will cover fewer people, raise health insurance costs for the sick, old and rural and cut taxes for the wealthy.”
Boston Globe: GOP sails into the health care storm
“It goes without saying that GOP leaders have nobody to blame but themselves for their predicament, after having offered nothing but simplistic sloganeering about health care policy for the last six years. Still, the wiser course now would be to cut their losses and pull the plug on Ryan’s plan — or get ready for the long, treacherous, unpredictable slog of improving it.”
Penn Live: There's nothing 'affordable' about the GOP's Affordable Care Act replacement
“After bashing Democrats in 2010 for ramming through a bill that they allege no lawmaker was given time to read, GOP leaders this week introduced a healthcare ‘reform’ plan free of estimates on how much it would cost or how many people it would cover.”
“Republicans need to slow down and read their own bill. There's nothing remotely affordable -- or humane -- about it.”
Mineral Daily News-Tribune (West Virginia): The end of the GOP health-care charade
“The vague outline that Ryan released consists mostly of boilerplate, such as health savings accounts, high-risk pools and Medicaid block grants to the states. Equally familiar is the total absence of a funding mechanism (accompanied by a studied refusal to acknowledge that no such mechanism exists). Even this paltry outline, eight years in the making, failed to produce consensus among House Republicans.”
Sacramento Bee: Trumpcare: Euthanasia to cure a cold
“Trumpcare’s only apparent winners would be taxpayers with adjustable gross income of more than $200,000, who would get a hefty tax break. But it’s hard to be sure because, incredibly, the bill has been introduced without a Congressional Budget Office evaluation of its costs, fiscal and human. Clearly, the bill should not proceed without a CBO score.”
Washington Examiner: Half-baked Obamacare is recipe for GOP failure
“But because it is bad policy, it is also bad politics. It won't improve much in the sector, and it will lead voters to blame Republicans instead of Democrats for all the costs and confusion of the healthcare system.”
Los Angeles Times: The GOP isn't replacing all of Obamacare — just the parts that work
“The bills’ authors don’t seem to be trying to improve the healthcare system; they just seem to be trapped by a promise they made to voters without regard to the damage it might do. In short, it’s a baffling plan with no clear objective that’s deservedly getting blasted from all sides, with conservatives, liberals and libertarians all trashing it.”
New York Times: No Wonder the Republicans Hid the Health Bill
“While working people lose health care, the rich would come out winners. The bill would eliminate the taxes on businesses and individuals (people making more than $200,000 a year) who fund Obamacare. The tax cuts would total about $600 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.”
Washington Post: An Obamacare repeal that’s both heartless and reckless
“Adding to this irresponsible picture, Republicans are poised to mark up their bill without a full analysis from the Congressional Budget Office of its budgetary impact or — crucially — of how many people the proposal would (or would not) cover. On the latter question, there is ample reason for concern. The bill would substantially reduce the amount of assistance that low-income people get to buy coverage on the individual insurance market, it would ramp up how much more insurers can charge older people relative to younger people, and it would remove Obamacare’s crucial link between actual insurance costs and the federal assistance people get. Combined, these changes would push many needy people out of the individual insurance market.”
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