WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, lambasted Congressional Republicans’ health care bill on Wednesday after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an updated cost estimate. The new CBO report on the American Health Care Act made clear that 14 million fewer people would be insured by next year, 23 million fewer people would be insured by 2026, and average premiums for single policyholders would increase by 20 percent next year.

“This CBO score just confirms that the House repeal bill is still a humanitarian catastrophe for America,” said Murphy. “The CBO score says that if you are an individual with a pre-existing condition in a state that uses the waiver, you will not be able to buy insurance. If you are sick, if you have ever been sick in this country, you are now at risk of losing your health care. There’s $663 billion in tax cuts for the super wealthy and for big drug companies. The story is now complete—23 million people will lose their health care for these tax cuts. Now everyone knows how terrible this is for the country.”

Video of Murphy reacting to the CBO score is available here.

Murphy has continuously called on Congressional Republicans to stop their dangerous crusade to repeal the ACA and to work in a bipartisan way to improve the law. Earlier this month, Murphy spoke on the Senate floor to highlight broken promises by President Trump and Congressional Republicans to improve America’s health care system. Murphy outlined the repeated commitments President Trump made to lower premiums and deductibles, cover pre-existing conditions, and maintain funding for Medicare and Medicaid. Instead, President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ American Health Care Act would raise costs and worsen care to pay for a huge tax cuts for the wealthy.

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