Obama: Senate legislation is ‘not a healthcare bill’

Obama broke his silence about the bill following a draft released by Senate Republicans Thursday. The bill makes significant changes to the structure of Medicaid, rolls back the individual and employer mandate, stabilizes the Obamacare exchanges for a few years and gives states a broad range of flexibility to make changes to healthcare plans. Senators have been meeting about the bill for weeks, but its details have been closely held and Senate leaders are planning a vote next week. Because they are advancing the bill through reconciliation, they can afford to lose no more than two votes in the Senate to reach a majority, assuming a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence.

Obama slammed the “rushed” process that Republicans were using to advance their legislation and said that it would undo the protections that his law, formally called the Affordable Care Act, created.

“I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party,” he said. “Still, I hope that our senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on healthcare or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.”

Obama noted that changes would be made to the bill but that he believed they would be just as harmful, invoking a term his successor, President Trump used, calling the House healthcare bill “mean.”

“Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family — this bill will do you harm,” he said. “And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.”

Obama touted the achievements that the Affordable Care Act made, including by lowering the number of uninsured, allowing young people to stay on their parents’ healthcare plan until the age of 26 and providing contraception at no co-pay. He noted that fixes were still needed, however.

“I was careful to say again and again that while the Affordable Care Act represented a significant step forward for America, it was not perfect, nor could it be the end of our efforts — and that if Republicans could put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we made to our healthcare system, that covers as many people at less cost, I would gladly and publicly support it,” he said.

Before leaving office, Obama urged fellow Democrats to fight to protect the Affordable Care Act. After Trump took office, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed doubt that Republicans would be succesful at making changes to Obamacare, calling them the “dog who caught the bus” and saying that they “don’t know what to do.”

The party’s sense of urgency has mounted, however, following the House’s narrow passage of its bill, the American Healthcare Act, and the release of a draft from the Senate. Democrats have blasted both plans and pointed to an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that projects under the House bill 23 million more people will be uninsured by 2026, and would make coverage for people with pre-existing illnesses in some states prohibitively expensive. The Senate healthcare bill makes some changes to the House plan, but a CBO score won’t be made public until early next week.

Obama challenged senators to think carefully about supporting the bill and how it would affect people with opioid addictions, pregnant women, children with disabilities, older people and low-income people would be impacted by the bill.

He urged both parties to compromise on healthcare and for citizens to call their representatives.

“I believe it would demonstrate the kind of leadership that appeals to Americans across party lines,” he said.