Blumenthal Will Convene His Own Hearing on Health Care

June 17--The decision by Senate Republican leaders to craft legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act without holding a single public hearing has drawn widespread criticism from Democrats.

"It's a small group of Republicans...meeting in secret [and] none of us on the Democratic side have a clue as to what they're doing," Sen. Richard Blumenthal told the Courant's editiorial board on Friday.

In response to the Republican strategy, Blumenthal will convene a meeting on Monday morning at the legislative office building in Hartford to gather testimony on the healthcare overhaul. "How do we vote in the next few weeks on a bill that has not been....reduced to writing, that has been done in secret without any kind of public hearing?" Blumenthal said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the New York Times this week that there have been "gazillions of hearings on this subject" in recent years.

The Affordable Care Act took months to draft and was debated in the Senate for 25 days before clearing the chamber on Dec. 24, 2009. While much of the bill was discussed in public, some key provisions, such as the removal of a public option provision that states could adopt, were negotiated by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

At the time, Republicans were roundly critical -- not just of the legislation but also of the strategy that created it. "This bill is a mess, and so is the process that was used to get it over the finish line," McConnell said at the time.

Now Democrats such as Blumenthal are using that same line of attack to hammer the GOP approach. "There is a time honored way to pass a bill, which is to make some proposals, have hearings, try and improve the bill, try for a bipartisan majority," Blumenthal said.

Senate Republican leaders said they hope to vote on the measure before the July 4 recess, a timeline even some Republicans believe is too ambitious.

The House approved its version of an Obamacare repeal last month. It's unclear how the Senate proposal will differ from the House bill, which President Trump this week denounced as "mean."

Blumenthal, who seldom voices support for Trump's public comments, agreed with the president's assessment. "When the president says it's mean, he is absolutely right. It is devastatingly cruel," Blumenthal said. "Just take something like opioid abuse and addiction. The House bill cuts treatment for a program that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support."

Blumenthal questioned whether the House proposal could garner enough support in the Senate. The proposed cuts effecting addiction treatment programs would be a tough sell for Republican Senators from Ohio, West Virginia and Maine, regions that have been hit hard by the opioid abuse crisis.

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