Dr. Brent MorrisMy whole professional life, almost 40 years as a pediatrician in this community, has been devoted to caring for children and their families. It is a devotion that we all share for those we love. We cannot, and I will not, betray that commitment to the best possible life, indeed life itself, for the most vulnerable Americans in the name of a massive tax cut for the wealthy.
Last week Senate Republicans failed to pass their health care repeal bill after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found the bill would increase premiums by 74 percent and strip health care coverage from 22 million Americans. Additionally, a projection by the Urban Institute notes that the number of uninsured non-elderly Tennessee residents would rise from the current 726,000 persons, or 12.9 percent of the population, to 1.079 million people, or 19 percent. The experts agree that if this bill becomes law, people across Tennessee will face skyrocketing health care costs and weaker coverage protections. The poor, the elderly, the disabled and children will bear the brunt of the detrimental changes.
An administration source has blatantly admitted that Sen. Mitch McConnell plans to sway senators through payments from a $200 billion dollar "slush fund" for individual local projects to get them on board. Simply put, the Senate will stop at nothing to get this bill passed, even though it means millions of Americans and Tennesseans won't have insurance, essential health benefits or access to Medicaid, including about 60,000 folks in Hamilton County alone.
Republicans wrote their health care bill in secret to hide the damage it would do. However, now that the public has seen the bill, a mere 12 percent approve.
When the Affordable Care Act was eventually passed in 2010, it went through a lengthy process that included a month-long debate in the House and more than 150 amendments. In the Senate they spent 13 days marking up the legislation and 60 hours of debate on the floor. The bill was done in an open and bipartisan fashion, though one party controlled both houses.
Sen. McConnell and the rest of the GOP want to rush this process. After a failed first attempt, McConnell is now spending his 4th of July recess twisting arms to get the 50 votes needed to save the bill and check a box that Republicans promised to fulfill on day one of the Trump presidency. A few backroom deals or buy-offs will not fix this bill.
No buyout, bailout or backroom deal can substitute for the failure to make a commitment to the health of our fellow citizens. Instead, the bill raises costs, cuts coverage and eliminates vital protections for millions, while giving huge tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations. Ending Medicaid expansion a few years later is still ending Medicaid expansion for elderly and newborns, along with millions of other deserving families in this country.
Sen. Bob Corker admitted that the Republican Senate health care bill is "inappropriate," but could have recognized that earlier had he and Sen. Lamar Alexander held hearings with experts and their constituents. Will Sens. Alexander and Corker actually look their constituents in the eye and listen to them and health experts now? When was the last time they held a public town hall or forum with Tennesseans?
If Sens. Alexander and Corker believe the objective of the Senate's health care bill is to make America healthy, then it's time they stop working behind closed doors in a secret and partisan manner. It is time for them to come home and listen to the people they represent. Only when our leaders listen to us, health experts and work across the aisle, will they find bipartisan solutions that actually improve health care for Americans. Disease, suffering and death are part of the real world. Our senators need to deal with that reality as fellow humans - not politicians.
Brent Morris is a longtime Chattanooga pediatrician.