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Maine’s Senators Vote Against Proceeding With Health Care Debate

Both of Maine’s senators voted against a Republican health care bill Tuesday, but their votes weren’t enough to block the Senate from moving forward to debate legislation that could dramatically reshape health care in the U.S. Health advocates are worried the proposal will be disastrous for Maine.

Only two Republican senators opposed the move to proceed. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was one of them, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the other. Combined with opposition from Democrats, the tally was 50-50, and then Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie.

That officially opens up the future of health care policy for debate, and Steve Butterfield of Consumers for Affordable Health Care says he’s horrified that lawmakers will consider proposals that could devastate the health care system.

“Because every version of a bill they’ve come up with is worse than the one before it,” he says.

The current proposal would essentially be a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which would buy Republicans time to create a replacement bill later.

Previous replacement proposals have called for defunding Planned Parenthood and eliminating an individual and employer mandate to purchase insurance. They allow for older consumers to be charged five times as much as younger consumers. They also make dramatic changes to Medicaid by converting it to a program that receives a fixed amount of money, which would end the federal government’s open-ended commitment to chip in on state spending, no matter how it fluctuates.

“At this point, this is not a bill about the ACA. This is a bill about unraveling Medicaid, which is what 20 percent of the population in Maine relies on,” Butterfield says. “A little less than half of all babies born in this state rely on Mediciad to bring them into the world.”

People with disabilities also rely on Medicaid to pay for their long-term care, says Ann Woloson of Maine Equal Justice Partners, as do seniors.

“There’s about 50,000 elderly people who rely on Medicaid,” she says. “Most of them are residing in nursing homes. So it’s not just people we’re talking about, but we’re talking about our health care infrastructure that serves the elderly.”

Given earlier proposals, Woloson says she doesn’t have confidence that future Republican efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act will improve health care.

“The proposals will do nothing to increase access or increase affordability. And that just doesn’t make sense, because that’s what people are looking for not just in Maine, but across the country,” she says.

Gordon Smith of the Maine Medical Association points to analyses from the Congressional Budget Office of earlier bills that suggest millions of people will lose insurance. Whether it’s 22 million people or 32 million people, he says, it will be devastating to more than just those who lose insurance.

“It’s going to be devastating to rural hospitals. And it’s going to have great implications for those of us who remain insured, because premiums will soar because people who are uninsured will be unable to pay anything,” he says.

It’s unclear how a Senate health care bill could evolve in the days ahead, but it will have to win approval in the Senate and the House. Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine’s 2nd District issued a statement on Tuesday that he does not support a repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st District called Tuesday’s Senate vote an act of cowardice by Republican leadership, and vowed to fight any bill that moves forward tooth and nail.

Late Tuesday afternoon, independent U.S. Sen. Angus King released a statement in response to the Senate’s vote on the motion to proceed.

“I’ve never seen a process like this before with no hearings,” he said. “And it will almost certainly produce a terrible bill that will drastically raise costs for people in Maine, put coverage out of reach for many others and reduce Medicaid funding, causing states to choose between helping seniors or children or people with disabilities.”

The Senate will now begin 20 hours of debate on health care legislation.