“The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score of the heartless Senate health care repeal bill, released today, offers no surprises. The Senate bill would rob coverage from 22 million people over the next 10 years by driving up costs and pushing coverage out of reach for those who need it most. By gutting Medicaid, repealing significant insurance protections, defunding Planned Parenthood and expanding harmful abortion coverage restrictions, it would devastate women and families.
This cruel bill truly is women’s worst nightmare. Like the House bill, the Senate’s legislation would cause millions to lose coverage and increase costs, effectively punishing those who need care the most: women, people with disabilities, aging adults, and those experiencing financial hardship, all in order to deliver tax cuts to the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations. Taken together, the many harmful provisions in this bill will have particularly dire consequences for low-income women, women of color and older women.
The Affordable Care Act was the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation, but Senate leadership is using efforts to repeal the law as a vehicle to wreak havoc on our health care system. The bills the House passed and the Senate is about to vote on would turn back the clock to the days when women routinely struggled to find affordable, quality health coverage that met their needs, plans routinely excluded essential women’s health services, and women had to pay more than men for their coverage.
The Senate bill is an attack on women’s health, well-being and economic security – plain and simple. The Senate must reject this harmful bill and protect our care.”