Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she will work with the state to analyze a bill released by fellow Senate Republicans on Thursday that would overhaul the federal health care law. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. The House's bill factors in age, but not income, when determining how much financial assistance to provide people. The Republican version would repeal the mandates the Affordable Care Act imposed, Republicans would propose to give states more latitude to opt out of Obamacare regulations.
Currently, the medical device tax is suspended through the end of this year, but under either the House or Senate bills it would be permanently repealed before the moratorium on the tax ends. The Senate bill includes that ban, but it allows states a back-door way to go around the ban, by also allowing insurers to cap lifetime spending on non-essential services.
"Our job now is to rally millions of Americans against this disastrous bill to make sure that it does not pass the Senate".
He called the Senate's bill "not a health care bill" but a "massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America".
Like the House bill, the Senate's option would drastically cut Medicaid, whose users are two-thirds female, ending coverage for some 11 million users.
"In New York, we believe that health care is a human right".
Bernie Sanders Calls GOP Health Care Bill 'Most Harmful' Ever
Sanders has called the Senate's health care bill "the most harmful piece of legislation" he's ever seen, and in the past warned that "thousands would die" if it passes.
The Maine lawmaker added that she also couldn't support a bill that made deep cuts to Medicaid while also stating that she does care that funding to Planned Parenthood is being impacted.
In his statement, Obama said the Senate bill is "not a health care bill".
Several Republican senators have already said they oppose the bill, at least as of now. The reason is simply that too many otherwise healthy people will simply wait until they get sick to sign up.
"This is a bill created to strip away health care benefits and protections from Americans who need it most in order to give a tax break to the folks who need it least", Schumer said. He says this bill is better designed than the House version because it offers more help to older people who can't afford insurance while making coverage cheaper for young, healthy people.
"What I'm telling [fellow Senators] is if they get to an impasse, come talk to me, because I'm more than willing to vote for a partial repeal if I can't get complete repeal, but I'm not willing to vote for new Republican entitlement programs", Paul said.
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