U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop: GOP health plan reverses progress

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, says the American Health Care Act proposed by Republicans would cost millions of Americans their health care coverage if enacted.

Bishop has been a strong supporter of the Affordable Care Act that the AHCA would replace.

“Instead of working to improve on the progress we have made, House Republicans have proposed a bill that would jeopardize the ability of our citizens to lead healthy and productive lives,” Bishop said in a statement Tuesday night. “Their plan would eliminate a number of the vital protections provided by the ACA.

“Uninsured rates would rise, health care costs would increase, and millions of Americans both in Georgia and across the country would lose their access to important health care services. It makes little sense for Congress to be rushing headlong into this disastrous policy that could significantly impact so many lives.”

When the ACA was enacted in 2010, the congressman said, the U.S. “joined the rest of the industrialized world in providing health care coverage for its citizens.”

“In Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District (which Bishop represents), the implementation of the ACA has led to a 4.7 percent drop in the uninsured rate,” he said. “It has guaranteed that the over 550,000 individuals with health insurance in the district, both public and private, have access to preventive services like cancer screenings and flu shots without any co-pay.

“It has provided all policyholders with important consumer protections such as coverage for pre-existing conditions and prohibitions on lifetime limits, and it has helped close the Medicare prescription drug donut hole.”

The ACA passed with no GOP support. Republicans have worked since to repeal the law, often referred to as Obamacare and seen as former President Obama’s signature legislation. Republican leaders, who made repeal of the ACA a campaign issue last year, have been attempting to shore up support within the party for the ACHA bill. There have been reports that the most conservative Republicans in the House don’t like the bill because they don’t think it goes far enough in repealing the ACA.

President Trump said he was “proud to support” the Republicans’ replacement plan that was unveiled Monday, according to press pool reports. CNN also reported Tuesday that Trump warned House Republicans that if they could not pass health care legislation after years of promises, the party faced a “bloodbath” in the 2018 mid-term elections.