(BOSTON, MA) – Statement of Robert Restuccia, executive director of Community Catalyst, in response to today’s release of the Senate Republican health care repeal bill.

“Despite three additional weeks of backroom deals, secret negotiations, and promises of handouts to fellow GOP senators, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is out with a ‘new’ bill that features all the same failings of previous versions. The latest version of the same failed bill guts Medicaid, raises health care costs for millions who can least afford it, including those living with preexisting conditions, and strips care from millions more.

“This new draft does nothing to change the devastating impacts this bill would have on our nation’s sick and most vulnerable. The proposed cuts to Medicaid would inflict permanent and far-reaching damage on communities large and small, crippling rural hospitals, straining state budgets and forcing states to lower payments to doctors and nurses.

“Republicans in Congress, with the blessing of President Trump and HHS Secretary Price, would break many promises they made on the campaign trail last year. The Senate bill fails to deliver on the president and Senate members’ promises to increase access, lower costs and protect the more than 100 million people living in this country with preexisting conditions. It would devastate rural communities, harm older Americans who will face significantly higher costs, undermine care for people with mental health or substance use disorders and fail to combat our nation’s growing epidemic of drug overdose deaths.

“The American people want health care solutions, not empty promises. Through phone calls, emails, letters, demonstrations, town halls and countless other means for reaching out to their elected officials they have consistently voiced their objection to the partisan, secretive path Republicans have set upon. This bill fails to deliver what the country needs, and members of the Senate should reject it.”

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About Community Catalyst

Community Catalyst is a national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1998 with the belief that affordable quality health care should be accessible to everyone. We work in partnership with national, state and local organizations, policymakers, and philanthropic foundations to ensure consumer interests are represented wherever important decisions about health and the health system are made: in communities, courtrooms, statehouses and on Capitol Hill. For more information, visit www.communitycatalyst.org. Read our blog at http://blog.communitycatalyst.org. Follow us on Twitter @healthpolicyhub.