Graham-Cassidy health care bill may doom future GOP attempts to kill ACA

John McCain vs Graham-Cassidy health care bill

Insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, patient groups and even John McCain have vehemently opposed the bill.

The Graham-Cassidy health care bill is facing widespread opposition from many directions, including from a key member of the Republican party. Should this most recent effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) fail, it may prove to be the end of the effort.

Hospitals, doctors, health insurance companies and other groups rallied together to oppose the bill.

This represents an alliance of groups that are very rarely all on the same side. However, the most recent GOP repeal-and-replace strategy has managed to draw antagonism from them all. The Graham-Cassidy health care bill is a proposal led by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), as well as Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Senator Dean Heller (R-NV).

The idea behind the health care bill is to remove both the individual mandate and the employer mandate. Moreover, it would stop the Medicaid expansion and would shift the funding for those components to distribute them in the form of block grants instead.

The Republicans say the Graham-Cassidy health care bill provides wider coverage plan flexibility.

John McCain vs Graham-Cassidy health care billThat said, not all the Republican party members agree. Senator John McCain, whose vote collapsed the last GOP health care repeal effort, has already said he would not support this bill. “We should not be content to pass healthcare legislation on a party-line basis,” said McCain in a lengthy statement he made to criticize the latest health care bill. He condemned the effort to put through a repeal bill with minimal public scrutiny and without any hearings.

Groups such as the American Medical Association, the American Health Insurance Programs, AARP, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, among a long list of others, have put forth their own criticisms to the bill.

They have particularly focused on the fact that the Graham-Cassidy health care bill would not offer the same protection to people with pre-existing medical conditions that is currently available under the ACA. The proposed bill would allow insurance companies to charge higher premiums to individuals who have pre-existing conditions – a practice banned under the ACA.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.