Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Monday bashed emerging details of a GOP Obamacare replacement plan, arguing that that it will only raise premiums while cutting healthcare benefits for average Americans who signed up for the plans.
“Like every single past draft plan of what Republicans have come up with, the outline we saw on Friday will raise costs and provide fewer benefits to average Americans and put insurance companies back in the driving seat,” Schumer said. “Average Americans under this Republican plan will get less and they will pay more.”
The New York Democrat argued that Republicans are pushing forward with an unpopular plan to replace the Affordable Care Act even though angry constituents confronted many of their colleagues over the recess about repealing the law during raucous town hall meetings.
“Americans are speaking loudly and clearly that their jobs, their hospitals, particularly rural hospitals and their healthcare is on the line and want to know how Republicans actually plan to replace the law,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.
Republicans, he said, should listen to the “outcry from their constituents.”
“Don’t repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a threadbare health insurance plan that puts insurance companies back in charge. Keep the law and work with Democrats on reasonable fixes,” he said.
He then shifted to assail President Trump over his Cabinet nominations and selections of senior-level officials.
“The Cabinet confirmation process has been like an assembly-line of the least qualified and most conflicted nominees that I’ve seen here in my time in the Senate,” he said.
