Schumer Remarks on CBO Score of Senate Trumpcare Bill

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks during a
press conference regarding the recently released CBO Score of the Senate Trumpcare
bill. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

Today’s report confirms what doctors, patient advocates, Democrats and Republicans
have been saying for weeks: Trumpcare will lead to higher costs for less care, and
will lead to tens of millions of Americans left without health insurance.

For weeks, Senate Republicans tried to tell us their bill would be better than the
House bill, it would be different than the House bill.

Many House members even said they only voted for the House bill because they said
the Senate would make it better.

CBO’s report today makes clear that this bill is every bit as «mean» as the House bill.

This CBO report should be the end of the road for Trumpcare. Republicans would be
wise to read it like a giant stop sign, urging them to turn back from this path that
would be disastrous for the country, and their party.

There is a lot to unpack in this report, but I want to look at just a few key things.

The CBO makes clear that many Americans would pay more for their healthcare under
the Senate’s Trumpcare bill.

Just look at what would happen to America’s seniors.

Under our current system, if you’re 64 years old and have an income of $56,800,
you’d pay a $6,800 premium for a silver plan. Under Trumcare, you’d pay a whopping
$20,500 for the same plan.

That’s over a third of your income.

The CBO report also makes clear that the Senate bill offers people a bait and switch
when it comes to their medical costs. Americans who see lower premiums would get
less care or pay even more out of pocket in deductibles or other health care costs
that could no longer be covered under this plan. That’s not relief at all.

This dynamic would be even worse in states that now under the bill will choose to
waive the Essential Health Benefits, like prescription drug coverage or opioid
treatment. CBO estimates this will be half the population where the services they
actually need will no longer be covered leading to a significant increase in out of
pocket costs.

What they give with one hand in terms of lower premiums, than more than taketh away
with huge increases in out of pocket costs and slashed benefits.

This bill has been hanging on by a thread in the Senate, and this CBO shows why.

But we won’t rest on our laurels.

This week, the American people will witness a political exercise: the Majority
Leader will attempt to coerce the votes of his reluctant Republican colleagues and
any other holdouts by adjusting the dials on the legislation a bit. There will be
buyouts and bailouts and small tweaks that will be hailed as «fixes» by the other
side.

But the truth is, as the CBO made clear today, the Republicans cannot excise the
rotten core at the center of their healthcare bill. No matter what tweaks they add.
No matter how the bill changes around the edges, it is fundamentally flawed at its
center.

No matter what last minute amendments are offered, this bill will force millions of
Americans to spend more of their paychecks on healthcare to receive fewer benefits
simply so the wealthiest Americans pay less in taxes.