Sen. Bennet Continues to Push for Bipartisan Health Care Reform

WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The office of Sen. Michael F. Bennet, D-Colo., issued the following news release:

This week, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet continued to fight for a bipartisan approach on health care, even as Senate Republicans delayed a vote on their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Bennet has consistently expressed interest in working across the aisle to find a serious solution to fix our broken health care system.

Bennet wrote an op-ed urging his Republican colleagues to start the process over to draft a new health care bill.

"Why does [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell] now insist on jamming through a bill drafted in secret without a single public hearing or committee vote?" Bennet wrote. "Perhaps because he knows that the more Americans learn about his bill, the more appalled they will become...I urge my Republican friends to scrap this bill and start afresh on a bipartisan solution that actually fixes the problems in our health care system. The American people deserve a better process and a far better product."

Bennet spoke on the Senate floor about the need to reform the U.S. health care system-one part of which is improving the Affordable Care Act. Bennet believes Trumpcare is not a serious proposal, but a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans that is masquerading as a health care bill.

"I am all for working together in a bipartisan way to address the issues in our healthcare system-that go far beyond the Affordable Care Act-to make sure people in America do not have to continue to make choices other people all over the world are not having to make," Bennet said. "Nobody else in the world goes bankrupt because of health care, but that is still a problem in America. Fundamentally, the problem we have here is proponents of this legislation did not set out to fix our health care system; they set out to repeal Obamacare...so they could have the opportunity to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans."

Bennet held a press conference with providers and patient advocates from Colorado and across the country, who were in Washington, D.C. encouraging the Senate to preserve quality health care and coverage for millions.

"None of us know what health situations we are going to encounter in our lives," Bennet said. "We should design a health care system that anticipates that. Not a system that treats people as winners and losers, but actually takes care of all of us. That's why it is so important that all of you are here today, and that's why it is so important that people call your Senators. While you are on the phone, tell them that Democrats and Republicans should work together to produce something that is better for the American people."

Bennet has held over a dozen town halls across Colorado, where constituents have voiced their concerns about the Republican health care plan. He also joined his colleagues in a press conference to highlight the many faces of those who would be harmed by Trumpcare.

Among other outcomes, the Senate health care bill would:

Force Americans to pay more out-of-pocket for worse coverage;

Kick 22 million Americans off their health insurance;

Devastate Medicaid with a $772 billion cut;

Weaken protections from annual and lifetime caps used by insurance companies to deny care; and

Strip the Affordable Care Act's guaranteed coverage for maternity care and addiction treatment.