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Federal lawmakers representing the East End in Congress have much different opinions regarding last week’s decision by the House of Representatives to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act—legislation that will next be considered by the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican from Shirley who represents New York’s 1st Congressional District, voted yes on the legislation that narrowly passed, 217-213, in the House last Thursday, May 4, which was President Donald Trump’s 105th day in office. Every Democrat in the House of Representatives, along with 20 Republicans, voted against the bill.
In a statement issued shortly after last week’s passage, Mr. Zeldin praised the plan that is intended to replace the Affordable Care Act—also known as Obamacare—stating that the new version, called the American Health Care Act, or AHCA, would provide relief from “billions of dollars of crushing taxes and mandates enacted under the ACA.”
The new legislation, if ultimately enacted, repeals the ACA’s individual and employer mandates, as well as taxes on prescription and over-the-counter medications, health insurance premiums and medical devices, the congressman stated.
“This bill would help Americans access health care in ways they previously could not by increasing competition in the marketplace and offering plans that will be tailored to individual needs,” Mr. Zeldin said in the statement.
But U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said the bill—which he referred to as “Trumpcare”—could have a difficult road finding approval in the Senate even though Republicans hold a 52-48 advantage.
“This bill is going nowhere fast in the United States Senate,” Mr. Schumer said in a prepared statement. “Rather than trying to pass a different version of the same Trumpcare bill that would mean higher costs and less care, Senate Republicans should refuse to follow their House colleagues over a cliff, reject repeal, and work with Democrats to improve our healthcare system in a bipartisan way.”
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand echoed Mr. Schumer’s concerns in a similar statement, in which she also warned that many older Americans, under the AHCA, could pay more for their health care, an estimated 24 million Americans could lose their coverage, and those individuals with preexisting medical conditions could lose protections preventing them from paying higher premiums.
“The Trump health care bill that passed today on a party-line vote is atrocious and must be defeated in the Senate,” she said in a statement issued on May 4. “Health care shouldn’t be about politics—it is about people—and this bill would harm people.
“The only beneficiaries of this bill are big insurance companies and the wealthiest among us, with the price tag being paid by everyone else through higher premiums, less coverage, and millions of vulnerable Americans losing their insurance,” she added.
on May 4, 2017