Mr. President, this health care bill is still mean
“Well, we have a Senate bill now. Two, in fact: the original version released on Thursday, and the amended version, with new incentives for young, healthy people to remain insured, unveiled on Monday along with a Congressional Budget Office analysis. And both are them are clearly, unequivocally, mean. The Senate bill will take insurance away from tens of millions of people, make low-income Americans pay more in premiums and deductibles, and institute the biggest cut to Medicaid in American history. People will suffer. Some people will die. According to the CBO, 22 million fewer people will have health insurance as a result of the Senate bill, in its latest form. And 15 million fewer will have Medicaid coverage, as the program is dramatically shrunk to below even its pre-Obamacare funding levels. Spending on health insurance for low- and moderate-income people will fall by $1 trillion over 10 years, of which $772 billion are cuts to Medicaid alone.”