Neal-Pallone Statement on CBO Report for House GOP Health Care Repeal Bill
WASHINGTON, DC – Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) and Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today released the following joint statement after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report detailing cost and coverage estimates for House Republicans' health care repeal bill:
"Today's CBO report now confirms what we already knew: despite promises that ‘everyone would be covered' and ‘no one would be worse off,' this Republican bill would rip away health insurance from 24 million Americans over the next decade and ask millions to pay more for less coverage. Despite warnings from independent experts like CBO and others, Republicans continue to recklessly jam this bill through Congress without so much as a single hearing on what effects their plan will have on middle-class families. This report also reaffirms that the Republican plan does absolutely nothing to control costs or protect consumers. Instead, it guts Medicaid, raises costs on older Americans, and pulls billions of dollars from Medicare, all in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
"This is a major step backwards for millions of Americans who now enjoy the benefits and protections of quality health insurance gained under the Affordable Care Act. We strongly urge Republicans to back off their politically-motivated march to sabotage our health care system and instead work with Democrats to strengthen it."
Background
- President Donald J. Trump: "Everybody's got to be covered…I am going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody's going to be taken care of much better than they're taken care of now…But we're going to save so much money on the other side. But for the most it's going to be a private plan and people are going to be able to go out and negotiate great plans with lots of different competition with lots of competitors with great companies and they can have their doctors, they can have plans, they can have everything." [CBS News, September 27, 2015]
- President Donald J. Trump: "Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts, have to do it. Get rid of the fraud, get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it." [June 16, 2015]
- House Speaker Paul Ryan: The Republican healthcare plan will leave "no one worse off." [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 5, 2016]
- House Speaker Paul Ryan: When asked why the Republican plan would "send more money to the people who have gotten the richest", Ryan responded "I am not concerned about it."[Fox News, March 9, 2017]
- HHS Secretary Tom Price: "Nobody will be worse off financially" under Republican bill. [Meet the Press, March 12, 2017]
- OMB Director Mick Mulvaney: "We're looking at it in a different way, Mark, because insurance is not really the end goal here, is it?" [Morning Joe, March 8, 2017]
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