By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 23, 2017: Democratic Caribbean roots Congressional lawmakers joined other top Democrats Thursday in quickly condemning the142-page health care bill introduced by Republican Senators that proposed deep cuts to Medicaid, ending the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that most Americans have health insurance and creating a new system of federal tax credits to help people buy health insurance, while offering states the ability to drop many of the benefits like maternity care, emergency services and mental health treatment.
The lone Dominican-American Congressmember, New York Representative Adriano Espaillat, said he now sees why Republican lawmakers in the Senate hid the bill until the last minute. “I now see why Senate Republicans hid their version of #Trumpcare from the public until the very last second,” he tweeted. “In the House, Like the House bill, @SenateGOP version of #Trumpcare is a mean heartless bill that goes after Americans’ health care.
Brooklyn-born Caribbean American Congresswoman, Yvette Clarke, dubbed the bill “Trump Care” and tweeted Thursday afternoon: “Just for the record: I oppose this bill & any other version of #Trumpcare.”
Caribbean-roots Senator Kamala Harris, in acknowledging the comment made by former President Barack Obama, said he “is right” because this #HealthcareBill (if you can really call it that) is a fundamental attack on our nation’s values and character.”
She also urged Americans not to stay silent but to call all senators at (202) 224-3121.
“We must stop the shameful GOP #HealthcareBill,” Harris tweeted.
While Cuban-born New Jersey Congressman, Albio Sires said the bill should never have seen the light of day.
Caribbean roots Republican lawmakers in the House, including Congressmembers Mia Love, Raúl Rafael Labrador and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, all stayed silent on the bill.
However, their Party leader, Donald Trump, quickly took to Twitter to say: “I am very supportive of the Senate #HealthcareBill. Look forward to making it really special! Remember, ObamaCare is dead.:
His comments came as police were removing wheel chair bound protestors from infront of Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Capitol Hill. McConell for his part took to Twitter to state: “With our new #healthcare solutions, we’ll stabilize insurance markets that are collapsing under #Obamacare too. It’s time for #BetterCare.”
The Senate bill, H. R. 1628, would make subsidies less generous than under current law. It would lower the income limit for receiving subsidies to cover insurance premiums to 350 percent of the poverty level, or about $42,000 for an individual, from 400 percent.
Older people could be disproportionately hurt because they pay more for insurance in general. Both chambers’ bills would allow insurers to charge older people five times as much as younger ones; the limit now is three times.
The Senate measure, like the House bill, would phase out the extra money that the federal government has provided to states as an incentive to expand eligibility for Medicaid. And like the House measure, it would put the entire Medicaid program on a budget, ending the open-ended entitlement that now exists.
Itt would also repeal most of the tax increases imposed by the Affordable Care Act — a capital gains tax cut for the affluent would be retroactive for this year — to pay for expanded coverage, in effect handing a broad tax cut to the affluent in a measure that would also slice billions of dollars from Medicaid, a health care program that serves one in five Americans, not only the poor but almost two-thirds of people in nursing homes.
