Sen. Susan Collins has joined the league of Republican Senators opposing the Graham-Cassidy Bill. She said on Monday that she will vote against the new ObamaCare repeal bill, thus ensuring an apparent termination of the legislation, Fox reports.
Collins’ announcement came moments after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released figures saying the legislation would “result in millions of fewer people with comprehensive health insurance that covers high-cost medical events.”
Collins through a statement described the Graham-Cassidy Bill as “deeply flawed,” and that health care reform cannot be done properly “in a compressed time frame.”
“Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can’t be done well in a compressed time frame, especially when the actual bill is a moving target,” Collins said.
“Today, we find out that there is now a fourth version of the Graham-Cassidy proposal, which is as deeply flawed as the previous iterations. The fact that a new version of this bill was released the very week we are supposed to vote compounds the problem,” the statement added.
Collins would be the fourth GOP Senator to berate the legislation after Sens. John McCain, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz all declared their opposition to the bill. Though, Cruz aides revealed he is seeking amendments to the bill so he can vote in favour of it.
Collins laid out her three biggest concerns about the bill. They include, cuts to Medicaid, weakened protections to those with pre-existing conditions and pointed out that “physicians, patient advocates, insurers, and hospitals agree that both versions of this legislation would lead to higher premiums and reduced coverage for tens of millions of Americans.”
In addition, votes from two other Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, are still up in the air and with an automatic “No” vote from all Democrats and independents, the bill is like to meet its tragic end even before it kicks off, except some efforts are channeled to salvage it.
Susan’s statement further reads, “The CBO’s analysis on the earlier version of the bill, incomplete though it is due to time constraints, confirms that this bill will have a substantially negative impact on the number of people covered by insurance”.
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