Following the release Monday of a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the health care measure pushed by President Donald Trump, Maine’s elected representatives offered an array of opinions about what it means.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who’s a key player on the issue, called the report a “cause for alarm” because of its estimate that the proposal would slice the number of insured Americans by 24 million during the next decade.
“It should prompt the House to slow down and reconsider certain provisions of the bill,” Collins said in a prepared statement. “This is an extremely important debate with significant implications for millions of Americans. We need to spend the time necessary to get this right.”
Maine’s other senator, independent Angus King, said, “We knew all along this was a bad bill,” but the budget report “confirms it.”
King pointed out that the CBO estimates that 14 million people who have insurance today won’t have it next year if the proposal passes, with most of those falling off the rolls because they would no longer be mandated to buy insurance. But millions would simply find it unaffordable, the CBO said.
“Look around at your friends, your neighbors, your family and your loved ones. This bill is going to cost someone you know their health insurance,” King said.
He added in a news release that he hopes “this report will be a wake-up call to those who are breathlessly pushing this misguided proposal forward, and I make a plea to them on behalf of the tens of millions of Americans who will be hurt by this bill: Abandon this approach and let’s work together to fix the Affordable Care Act.”
U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a 2nd District Republican, said the bill is “the first step —just the beginning” in a process of replacing the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare after the former president who promoted it.
Poliquin said he “might have drafted this new plan a bit differently,” but he is “encouraged by the inclusion of provisions retaining coverage for those with pre-existing health conditions and the option for young adults to stay on their parents’ policies so they can become established in the workforce.”
Poliquin said Obamacare “is failing” and called attention to a letter sent by the leader of Anthem, one of only three Maine insurers, that urged them to repeal the ACA and replace it.
The CBO report, however, said that for those buying non-group health insurance, the market would “probably be stable in most areas under either current law or the legislation” pushed by Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a 1st District Democrat, blasted the Republican health care plan as “Robin Hood in reverse.”
“It’s a huge tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of older and lower-income Americans, who will face increased costs and other barriers to care,” she said. “It’s unthinkable that the House will consider passing a bill that not only drops 14 million Americans from coverage immediately, but could increase premiums by 20 percent” by 2020, according to the CBO report.
The report said, though, that by 2026 premiums would be 10 percent lower than if the existing system continued unchanged.
Pingree said that “by advancing this harmful bill, Republicans have demonstrated that the physical, mental, and financial well-being of millions of Americans is secondary to delivering tax cuts to the wealthy.”
Collins urged her colleagues in both the House and Senate “to take a look at the legislation” she introduced with U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., “which would expand access to health care coverage rather than contract it.”
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