05.04.2017 / Press Release

Is this who we are as a nation? A Trillion-Dollar Tax Cut for the Rich and Corporations at the Cost of Health Care for Millions of Families?

Bill Shreds Medicaid Safety Net, Strips Coverage from Millions, Drives up Premiums, and Endangers Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions

Washington, D.C. – The Republican-led House of Representatives voted narrowly today to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with legislation that would potentially cost millions of families their health coverage and drive up costs for millions more, while giving a trillion-dollar tax cut to wealthy individuals and corporations. It also represents the largest restructuring and financial cut to the Medicaid program since its inception, by walking away from a sustained federal commitment to children, the elderly and people with disabilities, leaving them to the whims of state legislatures. The bill also allows states to opt out of ACA protections that prohibit insurers from charging higher premiums for those with pre-existing conditions or selling low-quality coverage that does not include “essential health benefits” – like hospitalization, mental health services, and maternity and newborn care.

Following is the statement of Frederick Isasi, Executive Director of Families USA:

“Is this who we are as a nation? Is this what President Trump meant by ‘making America great again?’ This bill gives a massive tax cut to the rich and corporations, while devastating Medicaid with the most significant cut in the history of the program. That means pulling the rug out from under some of our country’s most vulnerable people – like children and seniors in nursing homes. It will take private insurance away from millions of hard-working people and drive up premiums for millions more, making it unaffordable, unsustainable, and un-American.

“President Trump recently said he has learned that ‘pretty much everything you do in government, involves heart.’ Well Mr. President, people in America plead that you put a little more heart into this. America’s families need your help so they don’t face financial ruin because of an accident or illness.

“The Senate needs to scrap this capricious, ill-conceived bill and begin working as the world’s greatest deliberative body. American families need help, not another partisan fight.