[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 79 (Monday, May 8, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S2787]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               TrumpCare

  Now, Mr. President, on healthcare, last week House Republicans passed 
the latest version of TrumpCare after a failed attempt earlier this 
year. When they see this version, the majority of Americans will think 
it is even worse than the first version.
  This partisan bill will dramatically increase the cost of health 
insurance for those who need it most, including older Americans, and 
lower the quality of coverage.
  TrumpCare would mean 24 million fewer Americans will be without 
health insurance.
  It would hike premiums by 20 percent in the first few years, and 
average costs for the middle class could go up by more than $1,500 a 
year. Middle-class people can't afford that kind of money. If you are 
struggling to make it into the middle class, TrumpCare could raise your 
costs by up to $4,000, putting you in an even worse pickle.
  It makes it possible for insurers to charge older Americans as much 
as five times the amount they charge younger people, and States could 
make this ratio even greater if they wanted. Under the first TrumpCare 
bill, someone making about $20,000 could have his or her--someone who 
is 63 years old--premiums go up from something like $1,500 or $2,000 
all the way to over $10,000 a year. This will be devastating for senior 
citizens, those 50 to 65. At 65, they get Medicare. They are in decent 
shape. But when they are older and not under Medicare, they could get 
clobbered by this bill after working so hard. And that is the time when 
you start getting susceptible to so many serious illnesses.
  TrumpCare would devastate our rural areas by decimating Medicaid, 
which rural areas rely on. Limiting subsidies to lower income 
Americans, many of whom live in rural areas, TrumpCare would put 
insurance for rural Americans even further out of reach.
  Many rural hospitals are the largest employers in their areas. We 
have many in New York State, in Upstate New York. They would be 
shortchanged by this bill. These hospitals--often the largest employers 
in our rural counties and the only providers of healthcare for scores 
and sometimes hundreds of miles around--might be forced to lay off 
thousands of workers. Many of these rural hospital leaders say that if 
TrumpCare passed, they would have to close. There would be hundreds out 
of work in an area where it is not easy to find work, and for those who 
don't work in the hospitals, it would be harder to get to the 
hospitals. We all know how important it is to get there quickly when, 
God forbid, a stroke or some other serious illness occurs.
  Maybe most troubling of all, TrumpCare would now eliminate crucial 
consumer protections in our healthcare system, including the ones that 
protect Americans with preexisting conditions. Every family in this 
country knows someone who has a preexisting condition. That sounds like 
a fancy word. What does it mean? Diabetes, chronic asthma, cancer, 
things like that. If you live in a State that opts out of this 
requirement, you will have to jump through so many hoops to maintain 
access to care, and even then it likely won't be affordable. It is 
unimaginable. You are a parent. Let's say you are 40 years old, husband 
and wife, and your child gets cancer. You can't get the coverage that 
under present law the insurance company has to give you or keep with 
you, and you watch your child suffer. That is inhumane.
  How, for ideological purposes, the folks in the House could have 
first eliminated it and now made it almost unattainable for so many 
millions of Americans--unfathomable. We fixed the problem in our 
healthcare system because we had heard so many horrible stories. The 
Republican bill brings it back from the dead.
  The way the House bill was put together in such a secretive and 
slapdash way, it is barely legislation. It well could be a menace to 
millions of American families. It means that the Senate should not even 
come close to passing a bill like this. It makes healthcare for working 
families, rural Americans, older Americans, and veterans much poorer 
and at the same time gives massive tax breaks to the wealthy. Some say 
that is the motivation of some in the House. To pay for these tax 
breaks for people making over $250,000 a year--and they get a big 
break--cut back healthcare on everybody else or on so many others. That 
is wrong. That is wrong.
  It does, frankly, exactly the opposite of everything President Trump 
promised he would do on healthcare. He said: Lower costs, better care, 
insuring everyone. His words. President Trump said he would not cut 
Medicare or Medicaid. His bill does both. TrumpCare is a giant broken 
promise for the working people, the hard-working people of this great 
country of ours.
  House Republicans rushed it through without hearings and without much 
debate or even a final CBO score. The final version was posted 8 hours 
before Members had to vote on it. Some of the very same Republicans who 
during the ObamaCare debate chanted ``Read the bill'' didn't even look 
at the final legislation, let alone study it. That is a breathtakingly 
irresponsible thing to do on a bill that will affect almost one-fifth 
of our economy and the healthcare of millions of Americans. I am not 
surprised our Republican colleagues wanted to rush it through. The more 
the American people see it, the less they will like it, just like with 
their first bill, which is why the first bill didn't pass and why the 
second one is in so much trouble here in the Senate.
  To borrow Speaker Ryan's catchphrase, there is a better way to reform 
our healthcare system. Instead of a partisan process, rushing through 
bills in the dead of night--no hearings, no debate, no score, no input 
from the other party--both parties could start working together on 
improving our healthcare system.
  Now that the bill is in the Senate's hands, we hope the Republican 
majority will pursue a bipartisan approach. If they drop their repeal 
efforts, which are already causing such uncertainty that insurers are 
pledging to hike rates on Americans next year, we Democrats are willing 
to work with our Republican colleagues to improve our healthcare 
system.
  In the last few years, we have made a good deal of progress. We have 
made major improvements in our healthcare system, expanding coverage 
for over 20 million Americans, bending the cost curve, and protecting 
folks with preexisting conditions. Why don't we keep all the good 
things we have in the system and work on making it even better in a 
bipartisan way? We want to improve quality, lower costs, reduce the 
price of prescription drugs, and expand coverage for all Americans. 
Unfortunately, the House bill does exactly the opposite.
  I hope my Republican friends toss this House bill out the window and 
resist the temptation to follow the same partisan, rushed process. I 
hope my friends on the other side of aisle drop repeal, which is 
hurting our healthcare system right now--just the threat of it--and 
start working with Democrats to make our healthcare better.