June 28, 2017

New CBO Report Requested by Duckworth Reveals Even More Devastation from Senate GOP’s Trumpcare

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) released the following statement today after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a new report at the request of Senator Duckworth and others detailing the longer-term impacts of the Senate Republican healthcare bill. CBO found that Trumpcare would cut federal Medicaid spending by 35% by 2036, further jeopardizing the health care that tens of millions of working families, seniors, children, people with disabilities depend on. CBO Director Keith Hall's response to Senator Duckworth and several of her colleagues is available here.

"This report is just one more piece of evidence showing how Trumpcare would rob tens of millions of Americans of their health insurance, including the many seniors, children, Veterans, working families and people with disabilities who rely on this program to get the care they need," Duckworth said. "Senate Republicans should abandon their partisan, secretive approach and come to the table so we can start to craft serious, bipartisan solutions to improve health care for the American people."

Senator Duckworth wrote to CBO on Friday requesting they analyze how many people would lose their healthcare coverage over at least a 20-year period, instead of CBO's standard 10-year period, because Senate Republicans delayed the implementation of some of their most drastic Medicaid cuts until 2025. These cuts would force states to either kick people off of their health insurance or allocate significantly more money they may not have. That would be particularly devastating for Illinois, which is struggling with a budget crisis and would be required by state law to eliminate a recent expansion of a program that 1 in 10 Veterans rely on for their healthcare in the event federal support is reduced.