BREAKING: Senate health care bill released (It’s awful)

Police Forcibly Remove DisableHealth Care Bill Protesters Outside Mitch McConnell’s Office

Capitol Police forcibly removed protesters gathered outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Thursday, with at least one photo showing drops of blood on the hallway floor.

Protesters stage “die-in” outside senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell’s office.

Associated Press has uploaded Senate GOP Leaders Unveil Health Care Plan

The Senate finally made their Trumpcare bill public, and it’s even worse than expected.

It slashes Medicaid even more than the House bill did AND eliminates funding for Planned Parenthood. Tens of millions would still lose health care. And all these cuts would be used to pay for massive tax breaks for the richest Americans.[1]

And believe it or not, Maine Senator Susan Collins STILL hasn’t said she will vote against it.  Senator Collins is widely seen as the leading moderate Republican in the Senate. If she goes along with this thing, it’s over.

Progressive Portland is one of the most effective new grassroots organizations in Maine and they’re mobilizing unprecedented pressure with sit-ins at Senator Collins’s offices in Maine, a flood of phone calls, and more.

The Senate bill was just made public–but they’re planning to hold a vote on it NEXT WEEK.

That’s why we’re throwing everything we’ve got at Senator Collins and the other key senators we need to stop this bill.

Last week, more than 60 people participated in our sit-ins at Susan Collins’s offices in Portland and Bangor–and her staff told us that she hated the House bill and was just waiting to see the details on the Senate bill.

Now the Senate bill is public, and it’s time for her to stop playing games.

Right now, the phones are ringing off the hook in Senator Collins’s office with Progressive Portland members making our voices heard. With your help, we can ramp it up still further by expanding our advertising buys and more.

Diane Russell is a former Maine state representative, speaker and Sanders delegate at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and The Nation magazine’s “2011 Most Valuable State Representative.”

~Diane Russell

From The Huffington Post.Com

Read The Full Text Of The Senate Health Care Bill

A draft of the health care bill that Senate Republicans largely have kept a secret was made public Thursday.

A draft of the health care bill that Senate Republicans largely have kept a secret was made public Thursday.

This is the first real look at the bill for many, including Senate Republicans. The legislation would dramatically scale back the safety net and give wealthy people and health care companies a massive tax cut.

Read the full text of a discussion draft of the health care bill below. 

Senate Health Care Bill – Discussion Draft 

Thank you  The Huffington Post & Paige Lavender

Senate finally unveils secret health care bill

By MJ Lee, Tami Luhby, Lauren Fox and Phil Mattingly, CNN

Washington (CNN)The closely guarded Senate health care bill written entirely behind closed doors finally became public Thursday in a do-or-die moment for the Republican Party’s winding efforts to repeal Obamacare.

The unveiling of the legislation marks the first time that the majority of the Senate GOP conference gets a comprehensive look at the health care proposal. With Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pressing ahead for a vote next week, senators only a handful of days to decide whether to support or vote against the bill.

The bill is very similar to the version of the House bill that passed last month but with some key changes. The text released Thursday showed the Senate legislation would still make major changes to the nation’s health care system, repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate, drastically cutting back federal support of Medicaid, eliminating Obamacare’s taxes on the wealthy, insurers and others. The Senate plan however would keep Obamacare’s subsidies to help people pay for individual coverage.

McConnell’s decision to keep the details tightly under wraps until Thursday was intentional and aimed at winning over his colleagues out of the public spotlight, but the secretive process has infuriated Democrats — and aggravated plenty of Republicans, too.

“I need the information to justify a ‘yes’ vote. I have a hard time believing that we would have that in such a short period of time,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, told CNN on Wednesday.