U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s first attempt to pass the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA)—the Senate GOP’s replacement for the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—failed because of opposition to its heartless provisions. Senate Republicans couldn’t swallow passing a bill that would’ve caused working families to suffer significant increases in their average health care costs, forced many rural hospitals to shutter their doors and left 22 million Americans without insurance—including a whopping 2.4 million people living in Texas.
In their desperation, some Republicans have latched on to a recent amendment introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. This proposal would allow insurers in every state to sell health plans that don’t contain any of the basic protections currently in place under the ACA (including the requirement to provide coverage at the same rates to Americans with preexisting conditions)—as long as they continue to offer at least one plan that keeps the ACA’s protections.
The above excerpt was originally published in Houston Chronicle.
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