The U.S. Senate today voted to begin debate on repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a popular law that has allowed millions of Americans to afford health insurance.
By a vote of 51 to 50, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie, Senate leaders will proceed with reckless decisions about our country’s health care system that could affect one-sixth of the economy and hurt millions of people.
In effect, senators voted to consider a mystery bill that no one – not even the lawmakers themselves – has seen, a bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly plans to bring to a vote with little or no time for review.
This recklessness on the part of our elected representatives amounts to an unprecedented attack on the freedoms of working Americans. If the mystery bill is similar to past proposals to repeal the ACA, it could upend our health care system and damage the health and well-being of as many as 32 million American grandparents, children and working people.
It could also cause insurance premiums and deductibles to skyrocket, leave states on the hook for billions of dollars to care for their most vulnerable residents and devastate state budgets, among other things.
All in the name of giving tax cuts to the super rich.
“The U.S. Senate has just moved one step closer to taking insurance away from tens of millions of people and gutting Medicaid, dealing a devastating blow to working families that would exact a steep human cost – all to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy,” AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders said in a statement.
“Repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act is both morally indefensible and deeply unpopular,” he added. “That’s why the Senate has done this in a way that has degraded the process – without hearings and without transparency, forcing a vote on the ‘motion to proceed’ before anyone knows what bill we’re actually proceeding to.”