R.I. governor, delegation: Senate GOP’s health bill ‘immoral’ and ‘mean’

June 23--Rhode Island's elected senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., and Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, all of them Democrats, aggressively attacked a newly unveiled Senate Republican proposal for changing Obamacare on Thursday, invoking words like "immoral" and "wretched" and "mean."

"Congressional Republicans are trying to pass an immoral piece of legislation, and they're hoping that no one notices," Raimondo said in a news release, asserting that the Affordable Care Act is working in Rhode Island, where 100,000 residents depend on it.

They also argued that the proposal jeopardizes health care for the sake of offering a tax cut to the most wealthy.

"I stand with hundreds of thousands of Rhode Islanders, including Senators Reed and Whitehouse and Congressmen Langevin and Cicilline in vocal, active opposition to this disastrous proposal," Raimondo said.

Both Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Sen. Jack Reed attacked the closed process that generated the proposal in the Senate.

Whitehouse called the legislation "a mean give-away to the wealthy" that would gut Medicaid with even deeper cuts than the "wretched House version."

"This will blow huge holes in state budgets, forcing terrible choices between opioid treatment, care for seniors, and students with disabilities," Whitehouse said.

"Trumpcare 2.0 is a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires dressed up as a health care bill," he said.

Calling the proposal "fatally-flawed," Reed said that Republican supporters of the proposal want massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of people who depend on their access to care.

Reed said the legislation will deny care to millions of Americans and only increase medical costs.

"Lastly, as best as I can tell, no doctors, no nurses, no hospitals, and no patient groups support this product," he said.

U.S. Rep. David N. Cicilline said the bill would impose a painful "Age Tax" on older Americans.

"Millions of Americans shouldn't have to give up their health-care coverage just so the wealthiest Americans can get a $600-billion tax cut," Cicilline said.

Elements of the bill, including "weakened patient protections," will have "long-lasting implications for the health of Rhode Islanders," said U.S. Rep. James Langevin.

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