[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13940]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on healthcare, on the Graham-Cassidy 
bill--and I see my good friend from Arizona is waiting, so I will just 
be a minute more--I have heard that a few Senate Republicans will be 
releasing a new healthcare bill today. No one has seen the exact print 
of Graham-Cassidy--both good men--but according to most reporting, it 
would take away even more benefits and hurt average Americans even more 
than the previous bills would have that were defeated.
  Republican Governors like John Kasich have said that they are not for 
this bill. He said: ``Trying to pass something through here in the 11th 
hour--I don't get it . . . I'm not for it . . . I'm for stabilizing the 
insurance markets.'' Republican Governor Baker said that the Graham-
Cassidy bill would ``dramatically, negatively affect the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts. We're talking billions and billions of dollars over 
the course of the next 4 or 5 years.''
  So I hope that Republicans, instead of trying to repeal the ACA again 
with the Graham-Cassidy bill, will work with us to make it better. I 
hope they will heed the good words of my dear friend from Arizona, 
which are to go through regular order--that is the crucible; that is 
what this NDAA bill is doing--instead of trying to jam something 
through at the last minute. That will not work.
  We need to start working together in a bipartisan way to improve the 
existing healthcare law. It starts with guaranteeing the cost-sharing 
program. Senators Alexander and Murray are genuinely working on a 
compromise proposal, which we hope will be ready soon.

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