Washington, D.C. — Today, GOP Senators Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Dean Heller and Ron Johnson introduced yet another bill to repeal the health care of the American people that would slash coverage, raise costs, eliminate protections and gut Medicaid. This desperate bill comes after three failed Senate repeal votes and a declaration from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that “it is time to move on,” and amidst the bipartisan hearings more than a dozen GOP senators have called for. The renewed partisan effort to repeal health care threatens the bipartisan efforts that began in earnest last week. In response to the GOP’s attempt to revive the least-popular piece of legislation in three decades, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:
“Time and again, the American people have made explicitly clear that they do not want partisan health care repeal. The Graham-Cassidy-Heller bill is as bad or worse than the GOP’s previous efforts to repeal health care. It contains deep cuts to Medicaid, would eliminate payments to help lower out-of-pocket cost and deductibles and guts protections for people with pre-existing conditions, while disproportionately harming states that expanded Medicaid over those that did not. In short, it’s everything voters of both parties have said they don’t want.
“Attempting to jam a partisan repeal bill through the Senate at the eleventh hour is shameful and unnecessarily puts the bipartisan process underway in jeopardy for no reason. It’s time for Republicans to finally abandon their failed, partisan efforts and follow the lead of Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray to focus on making the bipartisan, common sense fixes necessary to improve health care for millions of people.”