WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, released a statement on Thursday after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an updated analysis outlining the impact of the Senate Republican health care repeal bill on health care costs and Medicaid spending beyond the 10-year budget window included in the initial CBO score. The analysis made clear that – compared to current law – the bill would reduce Medicaid spending by 35 percent by 2036, which would force states to choose between cutting Medicaid, raising taxes on middle class families, or cutting other important state spending programs, like school funding.

“Trumpcare would be a humanitarian disaster in the first ten years, but it’s somehow even more of a nightmare after that. This bill will financially ruin so many families in Connecticut that it’s hard to fathom its impact. There’s no tweak or amendment that would make this any more palatable for people,” said Murphy. “Republicans in Congress have been promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act for so long, they’ve lost sight of what people care about. They need to abandon this trainwreck of a bill and work with Democrats to bring down health care costs.”

In a letter to CBO earlier this week, Murphy requested that CBO provide an estimate of the impact the legislation will have beyond the first 10-year budget window. The bill Senate Republicans released would dramatically shift costs in Medicaid from the federal government to states. In Connecticut, this impact could be as much as $2.9 billion per year by 2026. This fiscal pressure would leave states to either pick up the additional costs, limit benefits, reduce eligibility or cut reimbursement rates to providers.

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