On CNN's New Day Monday, co-host Chris Cuomo remarked at the end of a segment about the Republican Party not saying whether or not Americans will lose coverage over their replacement proposal of ObamaCare, ahead of a Congressional Budget Office report expected later Monday regarding the cost to repeal of and the GOP's replacement to the existing health care law, expected to cost $600 billion to do the former through 2026. "Have you heard any Republicans say, 'Nobody will lose coverage under this plan, I promise?' If you haven't there's a reason when the CBO report comes out," he said.
The criticism that, according to the Brookings Institution, 15 million Americans will lose their health insurance under the GOP plan was echoed throughout the segment. "It is estimated that 15 million Americans potentially will lose their health care coverage over the course of ten years under this new plan," national correspondent Suzanne Malveux reported. "Republicans anticipating this are already trying to down play this potential."
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"House Speaker Paul Ryan can't answer how many Americans will lose health care coverage under his plan to replace Obamacare," she added.
Unfortunatelty, the report omitted the issues with the existing health care law, such as ever-skyrocketing premium increases and insurers leaving the exchanges.
According to Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Jeffrey Anderson, the biggest issues under ObamaCare, aside from the aforementioned problems, are that it is projected to add $2 trillion over a decade to the already-$20 trillion national debt; it has benefited and nearly doubled the profits of Big Pharma and hospitals by 2015 compared to 2008, when Obama was first elected president; finally, the Obama measure has given unyielding power to unelected bureaucrats.
Here is the transcript of the March 13th segment:
New Day
03/13/2017
6:12:21 AM - 6:15:30 AM [3 min., 9 sec.]
SUZANNE MALVEAUX: House Republicans are really trying to push this through as quickly as possible through Congress, but the Congressional Budget Office report could very much slow it down. We'll talk about the cost of this plan and also how many people are impacted. It is estimated that 15 million Americans potentially will lose their health care coverage over the course of ten years under this new plan. Republicans anticipating this are already trying to down play this potential.
[HIGHLIGHT OF PAUL RYAN INTERVIEW ON FACE THE NATION]PAUL RYAN: I can't answer that question.
MALVEAUX: House Speaker Paul Ryan can't answer how many Americans will lose health care coverage under his plan to replace Obamacare.
RYAN: You dramatically increase the access to healthcare. We’re not going to make an American do what they don’t want. You get it if you want it. That’s freedom.MALVEAUX: The proponents of the American Health Care Act, arguing their plan will yield more choices and lower prices.
[HIGHLIGHT OF TOM PRICE MEET THE PRESS INTERVIEW]
TOM PRICE: I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially the process that we're going through.
MALVEAUX: So far, no Republican is able to back the president's campaign promise that no American would lose coverage under the new plan.
[HIGHLIGHT OF PRESIDENT TRUMP INTERVIEW ON 60 MINUTES]
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I am going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody will be taken care of. Much better than they’re being taken care of now.
MALVEAUX: But clearly not all Republicans are on the same page.
[HIGHLIGHT OF RAND PAUL INTERVIEW ON FACE THE NATION]RAND PAUL: If we get what we’ve got from Ryan, he will not have the votes.
[HIGHLIGHT OF OHIO GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH INTERVIEW ON MEET THE PRESS]
JOHN KASICH: This country better be careful. We're not losing the soul of our country because we play politics and we forget people in need.
MALVEAUX: Some lawmakers warning supporting a bill could put the majority at risk come midterm elections.
[HIGHLIGHT OF SENATOR TOM COTTON INTERVIEW ON THIS WEEK]TOM COTTON: Do not walk the plank and vote for a bill that could have to face the consequences of that vote.
MALVEAUX: Likely to influence how much the bill will cost. The Congressional Budget Office set to provide an estimate as early as today. But Trump's budget director casting doubt on the CBO.
[HIGHLIGHT OF MULVANEY INTERVIEW ON THIS WEEK]MICK MULVANEY: Sometimes we ask them to do stuff they're not capable of doing and estimating an impact of a bill of this size. This is the best in the GOP.
MALVEAUX: Ryan, addressing the dissention within the GOP.RYAN: When you're getting consensus, everybody doesn't get what they want.
MALVEAUX: The CBO score is expected to come out later today. House members will not be back in session until tomorrow. President Trump will host a group of 30 House conservatives and trying to woo them to his side to support this legislation and Wednesday this goes before the House budget committee, Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO: Alright. Thanks, Suzanne. Thank you very much. Something for you to watch at home. Have you heard any Republicans say nobody will lose coverage under this plan, I promise? If you haven't there's a reason when the CBO report comes out. We'll show what the price tag is and we're on that and also we have Steve King on the show. He said something that has a lot of people shaking their heads. We’ll tell you what, next.
