Rep. Thomas Massie believes the consequences of passing the American Health Care Act on Thursday could be catastrophic for the Republican Party and the process used to come up with the bill embarrasses him.
Massie said on MSNBC Thursday he believes the GOP replacement for the Affordable Care Act is a giveaway to insurance companies and won’t actually make health insurance cheaper or healthcare better.
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“The consequences of passing it and signing it are much worse for the Republican Party than the consequences of it going down today, and I hope it goes down today,” Massie said.
Massie said the plan replaces mandates, subsidies and penalties paid to the government with mandates, subsidies and penalties paid to insurance companies.
He said GOP leadership should have included more of its members at the table when coming up with the bill instead of insurance companies.
“That’s why everyone comes out worse, aside from the insurance companies,” he said.
Massie said the process to come up with the bill has been secretive and is similar to the passage of Obamacare in 2010. He said there’s no estimate for how much the updated bill will cost and lawmakers haven’t been able to review the updated final text of the bill that they’ll be voting on Thursday.
“I’m embarrassed but not surprised because this is just par for the course,” he said. “I’ve been in Congress for four years and everything is slap-dash, last-minute. We need some better planners here.”
