Schumer Blasts ‘Breathtakingly Irresponsible’ O’Care Replacement Bill

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 31: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters in the Ohio Clock Corridor following the Senate Democrats' policy lunch on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ... UNITED STATES - JANUARY 31: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters in the Ohio Clock Corridor following the Senate Democrats' policy lunch on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images) MORE LESS
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday morning slammed House Republicans’ draft legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, arguing that the bill would reduce coverage and raise the costs of health care for Americans.

“After seven years of talking about the same thing over and over again, you’d think the Republicans would have been able to come up with a better plan than this. This plan is a mess,” Schumer began in a floor speech. “Trumpcare will make health insurance in America measurably worse in just about every way and leave more Americans uninsured. It does, however, greatly benefit the very wealthy and special interests.”

The senator said that Republicans’ plan will “cost more and you’ll get less.” In terms of care for women, Schumer said the proposal would “send us back to the dark ages,” noting that it nixes Obamacare’s requirement that insurers don’t charge women more for coverage.

Schumer lamented that the tax credits the House GOP plan offers will be smaller than Obamacare’s subsidies, and that the proposal “removes an investment tax and a surcharge on the wealthiest Americans.”

“Trumpcare is breathtakingly irresponsible,” he said. “It shifts the costs and the burdens from the rich to the poor and middle class, from the government to the people, and raises premiums on older Americans. It seems designed to cover fewer Americans and make that coverage less affordable and less generous. It seems designed to make America sick again.”

He went on to put Republicans on blast for trying to push the bill through Congress quickly.

“They’re rushing it through because it’s very hard to defend what they have done, and the longer it’s out there, the harder it’s going to be for their colleagues, Republicans, to vote for it. Lawmakers will be voting blind,” Schumer said.

He also noted that President Donald Trump made a lot of promises about a potential replacement bill on the campaign trail and argued that “there is just no way this bill meets the President’s standard.”

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