Wyden Statement on Senate Floor on Seema Verma for CMS Administrator and CBO Score of Trumpcare
Just an hour ago, the official score came out from the non-partisan experts at CBO - number crunchers who've been unfairly attacked over the last few weeks. There is no sugar-coating these numbers.
24 million Americans getting kicked off their insurance plans.
A payday worth hundreds of billions of dollars for the wealthiest and special interests.
That'll be dropped onto
If Trumpcare passes, under section 132, she'd be able to give states a green light to shunt their sick patients into high-risk pools, when the historical record shows that high-risk pools are a failure when it comes to offering good coverage that's affordable.
Section 134 would put her in charge of deciding exactly how skimpy Trumpcare plans will be and how much more Americans will be forced to pay out of pocket for the care they need.
Section 135 would let her pave the way for health insurers to make coverage more expensive for people approaching retirement age. And that's only the beginning.
Trumpcare is all about huge tax breaks for the wealthy, financed by raiding
So in my view, the
Now, I want to take the time today to walk through some specifics with respect to Trumpcare, beginning with a scheme that I consider to be
If you look at the dollars and cents, it's clear that this bill is one huge transfer of wealth away from older Americans, from women and children, from the most vulnerable people out there, straight to the pockets of the wealthiest people in the country.
And no part of the Trumpcare bill shows this more clearly than the fact that it steals from the
Everybody in America who brings home a paycheck has a little bit taken out each and every time for
Under Trumpcare, the only people who will see their
And that tax cut is going to take three years off the life of the
So let's get one issue straight, this bill breaks a clear Trump promise not to harm
The promise not to cut
Bottom line, this proposal raids
There's also the tax break on investment income. Once again, this is a tax break that'll go only to the most fortunate individuals out there. And with the investment tax break, the overwhelming majority of the benefit, nearly two-thirds of it, will go to the top one-tenth of one percent of earners in America.
Then, as if that didn't go far enough, there's the juicy tax cut for health insurance executives' salaries over
Of course it's not just
Some of the people who get hit hardest by Trumpcare are those approaching retirement age. If you're an older American of modest income, 55 or 60 years old, and you need to get insurance on the private market, Trumpcare would cause your costs to skyrocket.
In parts of my home state - particularly out in rural areas - a 60 year old who brings home
A big part of this is because a major part of Trumpcare is built on an age tax. It's another key part of what
This bill would give health insurance companies the A-OK to charge older people five times as much as they charge younger people.
Let's be realistic, if you're a person of modest means a few years away from qualifying for
And the tax credits offered under Trumpcare probably won't be much consolation. That's because Trumpcare puts a hard cap on your tax credit as an older person, just
Then there's Trumpcare's radical attack on
Today, the
A lot of states have worked hard to give more care choices to seniors, as well as people with disabilities. Maybe instead of living in a nursing home or an institution, they'd rather be in the community -- maybe they'd rather live at home where they're most comfortable.
Trumpcare could mean that those care choices disappear. State budgets for nursing homes could be slashed. Nobody wants to see nursing homes shut down and boarded up. Nobody wants to see the elderly getting nickeled and dimed for the basics in home care that they rely on.
When it comes to
It puts an expiration date on the
And Trumpcare is going to cap
In addition to seniors and the disabled, Trumpcare will hit kids in
Then there's the effect of this bill on opioid abuse. By slashing
This ought to be a head-scratcher to anybody who remembers the last presidential race, when a parade of candidates rolled through state after state that has been hit especially hard by the opioid crisis. Then-candidate Trump said he would fix it. He was the guy who could end the scourge of drug addiction and get people the help they need.
Instead, Trumpcare would make the opioid crisis worse, and there's no getting around it.
In effect, Trumpcare would put states in an unimaginable position of having to decide whose
The final point I'd like to make on Trumpcare and
In my view, Trumpcare would create a huge disincentive to work. Today if you're on
Let's contrast that with the Trumpcare approach. Under the Trump plan, people who walk an economic tightrope, bringing home barely more than minimum wage, don't get the most help. They could see their insurance costs go up by thousands and thousands of dollars every year, which would effectively mean they'd be locked out of the health care system.
So for millions of people, staying on
So bottom line, Trumpcare could, in effect, keep people trapped in poverty.
Entrepreneurs and people who want to go back to school to pursue a degree could face a similar dilemma.
Somebody who wants to quit their job and pursue their dream of starting their own business ought to be able to do it without the fear that they won't be able to afford health insurance. The same goes for people who want to go back to school full-time to pursue a degree or certification. Trumpcare could make insurance unaffordable for those individuals.
Trumpcare would be the biggest issue on
And the fact is, this bill is taking fire from all sides - moderate
Trumpcare is all about huge tax breaks for the wealthy, financed by raiding
When you ask why anybody should support this bill, all you hear is a lot of health care happy talk to get around broken promises.
In an interview this weekend, HHS Secretary
But that statement ignores the simple math that shows that Trumpcare will force millions of people - particularly older, less affluent people - to pay thousands of dollars more for their health insurance.
In another interview, OMB Director
His response was that Trumpcare is about access and that the bill, quote "helps people get health care instead of just coverage."
But here's the bottom line, access doesn't mean much if people can't afford care. That's the future that Trumpcare would bring on for millions of Americans.
I also asked
For example, since the president has made big promises about bringing down drug costs, I asked for one example - only one - what
So here's where this nomination stands.
But it is a fact that she'd be one of the top officials when it comes to implementing Trumpcare, a bill that would raid
I will be unable to support this nomination, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it as well.
Read this original document at: https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-statement-on-senate-floor-on-seema-verma-for-cms-administrator-and-cbo-score-of-trumpcare
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