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Years of Republican jostling to end former President Barack Obama's health care law culminated in 

 a major victory for Republicans and President Trump.

House repeal of Obamacare hands hot potato to wary Senate

The bill proposes setting aside an additional $8 billion over five years to help states cover those who may be subject to higher insurance rates, shrinking Medicaid coverage and eliminating billions of dollars in taxes that currently help pay for Obamacare.

Here's where Minnesota's House delegation sided in the vote, and what they had to say about it.

Instead of improving the parts of our health care system where folks are falling through the cracks, the Republican bill I opposed today does the exact opposite.  

It raises out-of-pocket costs for hard-working Minnesota families, strips folks with pre-existing conditions of protections, guts Essential Health Benefits, makes draconian cuts to Medicaid, rips health care away from 24 million of our fellow Americans, and pulls billions of dollars from Medicare to provide tax cuts for pharmaceutical companies, large corporations, and America's wealthiest citizens.

It's not too late for congressional Republicans to abandon their disastrous efforts to tear down our health care system. It's not too late for Speaker Ryan to invite Democrats to work together toward improving our health care system for the American people.
 
However, the longer my Republican colleagues take to welcome Democrats to the table, the longer hard-working Minnesotans struggling to afford high costs on the individual market will be denied federal relief.

Last year, I promised the people of the 2nd District that I would promote real health care reform that works for their families. I'm keeping that promise.

Obamacare is continuing to collapse. The American Health Care Act's much-needed relief includes lower premiums, universal access, and greater patient choice. We also continue the important missions of protecting the vulnerable and ensuring that no-one can be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition.

With millions in Minnesota and the United States in need of relief from skyrocketing costs, diminishing choices, and limited access, the status quo under Obamacare is no longer acceptable.

This is just the latest step in reforming our health care system to be more patient-centered, and my focus remains on finding solutions that will make sure Americans have access to high quality, affordable health care. I'm also pleased to see the permanent repeal of the medical device tax included in this effort, which is critical to encourage medical innovation and make life-saving technologies accessible to patients.

The passage of Trumpcare is a reflection of President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans' values: they will abandon the sick and the vulnerable to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations.

This disastrous bill is an all-out attack on children, families, seniors, and people with disabilities. No Senate amendments will ever change that. As we move forward with the legislative process, I will keep fighting for affordable, quality health care for all Americans. We must protect our care.

In their first major vote under President Trump, House Republicans pushed through a bill that will increase insurance premiums and deductibles, slash hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, and leave millions of working people without affordable healthcare coverage — to finance a $1,000,000,000,000 tax cut for the top 2% of households. Everyday Americans will be forced to pick up this tab, and they'll pay for it with their health, their security, and in some cases, with their lives.

Under Obamacare, Minnesotans were forced to sit by helplessly as their premiums increased faster than 46 other states. The effects were so dramatic that there was a 34 percent decrease in the number of Minnesotans getting coverage on the individual market over the past two years alone. Men and women were dropped from their coverage, small business owners had to cut hours or stop offering coverage to their employees, and choices were eliminated for consumers. In fact, without special intervention, two counties in Minnesota's Sixth would not have had any coverage options whatsoever.

While the AHCA is not perfect, there are many areas it gets right.

The healthcare bill that passed the House today is even worse than the bill that was introduced two months ago. Like the previous bill, this legislation won't help the people in the middle who are struggling with skyrocketing premiums and unaffordable deductibles. It also jeopardizes the protections for people with pre-existing conditions that so many people from my district need to keep their coverage.


The message President Trump and the Republican leadership is sending to the American people with this travesty of a health care bill is simple and direct: Don't be sick and don't get old — because the sicker you are and the older you get, the more you will pay.

Instead of tearing apart millions of Americans' health care, President Trump should make good on his promise to cover every single American with good, affordable, accessible health care. We need to get busy tacking the battle of rising healthcare costs - not dismantling our whole system.

Health

Politics and Government News

MPR News Staff

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In a House vote yesterday that pushed through a repeal of much of President Barack Obama's health care law, Minnesota representatives voted along party lines. Here's what they had to say about their votes, and the new legislation.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

William Lager | MPR News graphic

Rep. Betty McCollum, U.S. House District 4

Rep. Keith Ellison, U.S. House District 5

Rep. Collin Peterson, U.S. House District 7

How your members of Congress voted on the health care bill

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