Following behind two Republican Senators voicing their disapproval of the Better Care Reconciliation Act on Monday night, Senator Bernie Sander (I-Vt.) voiced his opinion on the health care proposal’s failure, boldly declaring “victory for the millions who stood up and fought back.”
“In this country we should not be throwing millions off of health insurance. We should be guaranteeing health care for all as a right,” Sanders posted on twitter a few moments after Senators Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah said that they were going to vote against the GOP’s health care proposal.
While the most recent draft of the BCRA has not been to the Congressional Budget Office yet, the previous version was reported to have estimated that the potential ObamaCare replacement could leave around 22 million without health insurance.
The new GOP bill, the BCRA, proposed a 35 percent cut to Medicaid spending. In addition to the cut, an amendment to the proposed bill would enable insurance providers to sell basic insurance plans if they have at least one plan that provides widespread coverage. According to industry experts, this could cause many households to buy cheap insurance at low premiums but risk paying high deductibles and pay for many treatments out of their own pockets.
Bernie Sanders has long been a critic of any plans to repeal and replace Obamacare even before President Trump’s inauguration. He also attempted to persuade numerous Republican Senators to vocally oppose the bill.
Sanders, whose 2016 presidential campaign also made “insurance for all” one of its key promises, has recently hosted rallies in West Virginia and Kentucky to garner support in opposition to the new GOP health care bill.
However, according to Sanders’ statement on Monday night, the much-acclaimed “victory” against the GOP health care bill should not be credited to him, but to the millions who stood with him and voiced their opposition through heated town hall meetings, sit-ins, and rallies.
On Monday, hundreds of protestors were seen raging outside the Hart Senate Office on Capitol Hill to express their concerns regarding the bill and around 30 of them ended up getting arrested too.
Nationwide protests have also seen disabled individuals and disability advocates fuming about how they would be affected by the proposed legislation.
While a congressman has infamously claimed that “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care,” several “die-ins” have been organized throughout the country to raise concerns about the large number of people that could be affected by the lack of insurance coverage.
The announcement by the two Republican Senators vowing to vote against the bill, and the victory claims by Bernie Sanders may give BCRA opponents a reason to celebrate, however, it doesn’t look like the GOP has given up on its plans to repeal and replace Obamacare. President Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader have said that they plan on repealing Obamacare before coming up with a replacement.
