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Ahead of Trump’s Visit to North Carolina, Senator Thom Tillis’ War on Health Care is in the Spotlight

By July 16, 2019No Comments

As President Trump takes the stage in North Carolina tomorrow night, the record of one of his worst enablers in his war on health care, Senator Thom Tillis, will be on full display. Since he was elected in 2014, Tillis has endorsed and voted for the Trump/GOP repeal and sabotage agenda of fully repealing the Affordable Care Act, gutting protections for people with pre-existing conditions, increasing premiums and prescription drug costs, and slashing funding for Medicare and Medicaid. His record is clear: when it comes to health care, Thom Tillis puts the Trump repeal and sabotage agenda above the well-being of every North Carolinian.

Tillis Supports Repealing The ACA And Its Protections For 3.9 Million North Carolinians with Pre-Existing Conditions

2014: Tillis Said Repealing The ACA Was One Of His Top Priorities In The Senate. “A day after his win over Kay Hagan, Republican Thom Tillis is talking about what he wants to get done in Washington. Tillis spoke about the committee he wants to serve on and his plan to try and repeal Obamacare. Tillis met reporters at Cornelius Town Hall on Wednesday and spoke about reaching out to Democrats. ‘I think we should start by finding bipartisan opportunities to move for on the legislative agenda,’ Tillis said. On bills dealing with jobs and the economy, and the proposed oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, Tillis says Democratic leadership stalled in the Senate. He also vowed to fulfill a campaign promise — reversing Obamacare. The president would veto any bill to repeal it, but Tillis said there are other tactics. ‘Take a look at things we can delay like the employer mandates. Other things, if we can delay them or replace them with something more sustainable, that’s what we need to focus on,’ Tillis said.” [WSOC, 11/5/14

2015:  Tillis Voted To Repeal Most Of The ACA.  Tillis voted for legislation that gutted the Affordable Care Act by eliminating the insurance exchanges and subsidies, and repealing the Medicaid expansion accepted by 30 states.  [HR 3762, Roll Call Vote #114, 12/3/15

2017:  Tillis Voted For The Senate “Repeal And Delay” Plan.  Tillis voted for Obamacare Repeal and Replacement Act was a Republican effort to repeal the ACA without a replacement.  Known as “repeal and delay,” the bill repealed major sections of the ACA, including the Medicaid expansion and premium tax credits, in 2020.  [HR 1628, Roll Call Vote #169, 7/26/17

  • If Repeal and Delay became law, 32 million fewer people would have health insurance by 2026. 18 million Americans would lose health coverage just in the first year after repeal. 
  • Health insurance premiums would double for those in the individual market.

2017: Tillis Voted For The Better Care Reconciliation Act.  Tillis voted for the Better Care Reconciliation Act, which repealed and replaced the ACA.  [HR 1628, Roll Call Vote #168, 7/25/17

2017:  Tillis Voted For “Skinny Repeal” Of The ACA. Tillis voted for “Skinny Repeal” of the ACA, which repealed the individual mandate and delayed the employer mandate while leaving most of the rest of the law in place.  [HR 1628, Roll Call Vote #179, 7/28/17

According To The CBO, Skinny Repeal Would Have Resulted In The Largest Coverage Loss in American History: 

    • At minimum, 15 million Americans would lose coverage in 2018.  This would have been the biggest one-year increase in our nation’s history. 
    • Premiums would go up by roughly 20 percent 

Tillis Has Voted To Slash Medicare and Medicaid

2017: Tillis Voted To Cut Medicare By $473 Billion.  Tillis voted for the FY 2018 budget resolution, which included $473 billion in cuts to Medicare over 10 years. [H Con Res 71, Vote #245, 10/19/17; Vox, 10/26/17

2017: Tillis Voted To Slash $1.3 Trillion From Medicaid.  Tillist voted for the FY 2018 budget resolution, which cut funding for non-Medicare health programs, most notably Medicaid, by 1.3 trillion, a 20 percent cut over the course of 10 years, increasing to a 29.3 percent cut by 2027.  [H Con Res 71, Vote #245, 10/19/17; Vox, 10/26/17

2013: Tillis Supported Legislation To Block North Carolina From Expanding Medicaid.  “Gov. Pat McCrory is backing a move by the legislature to block the state from expanding its Medicaid program or participating in the state health insurance exchanges created by the federal Affordable Care Act. […] House Speaker Thom Tillis expressed similar thoughts during a morning news conference, saying the bill is ‘setting the tone’ for how North Carolina funds Medicaid in the future. ‘Before we have a discussion about really increasing the funding to Medicaid, we need to make sure that the process we’re putting it into is going to make it more likely that those dollars are going to people who need help versus just being churned through an inefficient and wasteful department,’ he said. ‘This (bill) puts the emphasis back on fixing Medicaid,’ Tillis added.” [WRAL, 2/12/13