Senator Warren on the Republican "skinny repeal" health care bill

Mr. President, since the Republicans announced that their top legislative priority in this Congress
would be to rip away health care from millions of Americans, I have come down to the
floor many times to beg them to reconsider.
I’ve shared stories about families in Massachusetts who gained quality health care coverage for the
first time after the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
I’ve shared statements and letters from hospitals and doctors in Massachusetts,
talking about the incredible difference that health care coverage makes for the patients who
walk through their doors.
I’ve also shared many, many stories from parents with children who have complex medical
needs – all of those children depending on Medicaid.
I know that families and doctors and hospitals and nursing homes and patients lying in their
hospital beds haven’t just been sharing their stories with me.
They have been begging every Republican in the Senate to listen to them as well.
People shared their stories because they want to make a difference.
These are the stories of the families we represent.
They are our reason we are here in the Senate.
They are supposed to be our guiding light for the choices we make and the way we vote.
Senate Republicans who voted yesterday to move forward with their effort to rip away
Americans’ health care are not listening to the people they represent.
Their vote was irresponsible.
It was reckless.
It was cruel.
It was immoral.
But more than that – this was a vote that was not who we are as a country.
Let’s be very clear about what is happening right now on the floor of the Senate right
now.
Fifty Republicans have voted to open debate on a series of bills, each of which would
have devastating effects for health care in this country.
Now, the Republicans don’t know which of these bills will actually be asked to vote
on.
Only some of the bills have been analyzed by the number crunchers over at the Congressional
Budget Office – the CBO – to estimate how many people would be kicked off their
insurance and how high premiums would go up.
But every version the CBO did examine over the last few weeks was really ugly.
Tens of millions of people losing their coverage, and costs skyrocketing for millions more.
The latest plan that Senator McConnell has been floating behind the scenes would have
Republicans ultimately vote on what is called a “skinny repeal” bill.
This bill would make a limited set of changes to the Affordable Care Act – you know, just
the important stuff.
And what’s important to Senator McConnell?
Well, it seems to be the part of the Affordable Care Act that makes the health insurance system
actually work.
Because the “skinny” bill would repeal the parts of the ACA that say that everyone
needs health insurance coverage – this is the “individual mandate.”
Republican leadership is telling their members that if they vote for this “skinny” bill,
they can hammer out the rest of the details in conference with the House of Representatives.
But make no mistake – this isn’t a more moderate version of the Republicans’ ugly
plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
This isn’t compromise.
In fact, this may be the worst idea they’ve had yet.
Because if Senate Republicans vote to repeal the individual mandate, they’re getting
rid of the linchpin of the insurance markets in this country.
That’s because this provision – the one that the Republicans want to junk – is what
keeps the price of insurance affordable for people with pre-existing conditions.
Don’t just take my word for it.
Independent experts have looked at what would happen if the Republicans repeal the individual
mandate.
Boy, it is not pretty.
Just yesterday, the American Academy of Actuaries – these are the experts who study how insurance
works, they do that for a living, these are numbers folks – They wrote a letter to Senate
leadership begging them not to go through with this reckless plan.
They wrote that eliminating this part of the health law “would likely have significant
implications for health care coverage and costs both to consumers and the federal government.”
They said that it would “lead to premium increases.”
It would “weaken insurer solvency.”
Let me just do the translation on that.
The actuaries – that’s the professionals who study insurance for a living – are saying
that what the Senate Republicans are thinking of voting on is a provision to jack up insurance
costs through the roof and rip away coverage from those who can’t afford to pay those
higher costs.
We should be very clear about the consequences here.
If the Republicans go through with that vote, if they go through with that vote,
Senate Republicans will be responsible for every dollar of premium increases that occur
over the weeks and months that follow as this bill sits in a conference with the House and
insurance companies jack up prices because they don’t know what they might be required
to cover.
Senate Republicans will be responsible for every single person who has to drop their
coverage because they can’t afford those price increases.
The Senate Republicans will be responsible for every single person who didn’t go to
the doctor when they needed to or didn’t schedule surgery they needed because they
no longer had health insurance.
Senate Republicans will be responsible for every family in this country that misses a
mortgage payment or that can’t pay their electricity bill or is forced into bankruptcy
because their medical debt becomes too big to ever pay off.
Every time I come to the floor to talk about this terrible Republican bill, I have said
I am ready to work on bipartisan proposals to actually improve health care in this country.
And I say it again.
I am still ready to do that.
But we cannot move forward while Senate Republicans are still trying to take away health care
coverage for millions of Americans and drive up costs for millions more.
The Republicans seem to think they can wear us down.
That they can keep us here until we get too tired or we give up and just give in.
But boy, that’s where they’re wrong.
They don’t have a clue what they’re up against.
Because we’re fighting for families.
We’re fighting for little kids.
We’re fighting for our neighbors.
For parents and brothers and loved ones.
We’re fighting for the American people.
And when you fight for the American people, the wind is always at your back.
Your heart is always strong.
So Democrats will be here fighting for as long as it takes to beat back these shameful
health care bills.
We hear the American people, we hear you, we are on your side, and we will never give
up.

Senator Warren on the Republican "skinny repeal" health care bill

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