The Senate bill will be voted on this week unless public pressure results in at least 3 Senators opposing it.
Rob Portman from Ohio is one of the Senators who hasn’t yet decided how he will vote. He needs to hear from constituents. Please call both his DC and Ohio offices.
DC: 202-224-3353 | Cleveland: 216-522-7095
1. Maybe the # 1 reason: The bill isn’t a “health care” bill at all, but a tax cut bill
The bill will retain the nearly $1 trillion in tax cuts from the House bill over the next decade. The tax breaks would go primarily to the very wealthy, with 40 percent of savings going to the top 1 percent of earners and 64 percent of savings going to the top 20 percent of earners. The super rich, those earning $100 million a year from investments through stock sales and dividends would no longer have to pay that the Medicare tax that the rest of us pay. Just one example: Republican Party mega donor Sheldon Adelson could see his tax bill cut by about $43 million. Tax cuts will also go to insurance and pharmaceutical corporations.
2. Ending Medicaid as we know it
The bill would roll back Medicaid expansion (affecting 11 million people), cut federal support for the program even more than the House bill, which cut Medicaid by $800 billion. Seventy-five percent of poor children rely on Medicaid. Fifty percent of births in the U.S. are covered by Medicaid.
3. Millions left uninsured
The bill is similar to a House measure that would have left 23 million Americans without health insurance. Incidentally, President Trump called the House version “mean.” The bill would allow insurers to not cover essential services — such as emergency services, maternity care, opiod addiction treatment and mental health disorders
4. Less generous subsidies
Those eligible for insurance would receive less generous subsidies. This would negatively effect older consumers with moderate incomes.
5. Secrecy / lack of transparency
The bill was negotiated behind closed doors by 13 Republican male senators. The public, media, and Democrats and most Republicans in Congress had no knowledge of the bill’s contents during the negotiations. There were no public hearings. A government agency hasn’t yet “scored” or determined the cost of the bill, which was also true of the House bill before it was voted on.
Please call Senator Portman.
create real democracy 