Action Alert: Oppose the Senate Healthcare Bill

Thank you to everyone who contacted our senators, and friends in key states, to urge their opposition to the Senate healthcare bill or “Better Care Reconciliation Act” (BRCA), the heartless healthcare plan unveiled by the Senate majority! Thanks to the firestorm of protest across the country, and the resulting opposition in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has delayed the vote on the Senate healthcare bill until after the 4th of July holiday.

This fight is not over! The Senate leadership is working hard to recruit votes with potential changes to the bill, but no change will be significant enough to change the cruel and inhumane impact of the overall direction of the bill. The July recess provides an opportunity for everyone who cares about healthcare for all to raise their voices and demonstrate overwhelming opposition to the bill.

On Monday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its analysis of the Senate majority’s plan, and its horrific impact on healthcare coverage for millions of Americans.

The CBO estimates that 22 million people would lose coverage by 2026.

Medicaid is projected to be cut by up to $772 billion over the next ten years and the program as we know it would be destroyed. It currently serves as our public healthcare insurance and safety net for people with low-incomes, children and people with disabilities, people with mental health needs or Substance Use Disorder, people faced with catastrophic or chronic conditions requiring expensive medical interventions and medications, seniors and families with who have spent their life savings on long-term care and nursing homes for themselves or loved ones, would. Medicaid also covers the cost of nearly half of the births in our country.

By 2026, the annual cut in federal Medicaid spending in the Senate bill would rise to $156 billion. This is even worse than the House bill. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”), which allowed more people to qualify for Medicaid, would be eliminated. Individual states will have to pick up the slack, but would not be able to do so, and they would likely have to ration or deny healthcare to some groups who currently receive it. People losing Medicaid covered services would be unlikely to be able to afford the increasing cost of private insurance, even with tax credits or subsidies for that purpose.

The Senate bill would result in dramatically rising premiums and deductibles for health care plans with less coverage for people who need to buy insurance in the private market. Premiums would rise by thousands of dollars. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the current marketplace tax credits and subsidies to purchase insurance would be cut in 2020, and the current individual and employer mandates to buy and provide health coverage would end. States would be allowed to get waivers to eliminate the current requirement for insurers to cover essential health benefits like prescription medications and mental health treatment, and would also allow the return of lifetime coverage limits.

As Dr. Tung Nguyen points out, the Senate bill would take away health insurance from 22 million Americans to create a $700 billion tax cut for the wealthy. 45% of the tax cut benefits people making more than $875,000 a year. Those in the top 0.1%, who have $5 million or more in income, would get a tax cut of nearly $275,000 a year. The top 20% of American income earners will get 67% of the tax cut. Dr. Nguyen cites author, surgeon, and public health researcher Dr. Atul Gawande, who observes that the Senate bill will take away Medicaid from approximately 750,000 people to give the 400 highest earners in the country a $33 billion tax cut.  Like the House bill, the Senate bill has been called “Robin Hood in Reverse.”

Please take action today.