House republicans rushed through a disastrous Health Care Bill that would leave average new mexico families paying thousands of dollars more for less healths coverage. It would destroy the Medicaid Program as it currently exists in our state, and though our through our entire Healthcare System indicators. Nelson republicans are drafting their own version of a similar healthcare bill incomplete secret behind close doors without come with absolutely no, not bipartisan input. This lack of transparency and departure from regular order, its unacceptable and it is deeply irresponsible. Especially when every single American FamiliesHealth Coverage is at stake, if this bill ever becomes law. While we dont know for sure s what Senate Republicans version of trumpcare will look like, media reports say that it is shaping up to look more and more like a train wreck of a bill that President Trump and housear republican celebrated in the white house rose garden just a couple of months ago. A bill that President Trump reportedly said in another closeddoor meeting with republican senators last week was, in his words, mean, quoteunquote mean, and coldhearted. The house passed Trumpcare Bill is devastating to low income families, to seniors, to americans living with preexisting conditions. This isnt so much a Health Care Bill as it is a tax cut of the s ultra rich masquerading as health reform. You dont have to take my word for it. You can look at how the Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office described its projected impacts of a house passed Trumpcare Bill. According to the cbos analysis, trumpcare would strip 14 million of their Health Insurance next 2 year. And 23 million by 2026. All to give tax breaks to the wealthiest of americans. Thats reckless and, frankly, it is inexcusable by any measure. How would the bill do that . E housepassed bill which would again seem to be the baseline for the ongoing secret negotiations here in the senatei would slash funding for the Medicaid Program by hundreds of billions of dollars. And and the need to base tax credits for individual Health Care Market plans under the aca. Ive heard from so many new mexicans who have told me how access to Health Care Coverage has helped their families and in some cases even saved their lives. Enter, i recently met with patients at a Rural Health Clinic in hatch, new mexico. Ea and heard firsthand how important medicaid coverage can th mexico. One of the new mexicans i met there was annamarie, a las cruces native who worked for the las cruces public cruz surface for 22 years. Her husband passed away in 2008 and when she found herself unable to keep working following a minor stroke, she could not afford Health Coverage on her hr own. When she reached out to my office last year, she had bronchitis and walking enrol pneumonia. E t my staff helped her enroll in medicaid and now shes able to get access to the care that she needs. Want to take a moment to explaii why the Medicaid Program is so critical in my home state of new mexico. As a Medicaid Expansion state, new mexico has seen dramatic gains over the last five years in coverage for the folks that need it the most. Stories like annamaries illustrate just how important medicaid can be for hardworking new mexicans. Medicaid currently provides affordable Health Coverage to over 900,000 new mexicans, including many schoolchildren,ci seniors in Nursing Homes and longterm care facilities, people with disabilities, and people who need treatment for Mental Health and addiction. Just one example of the wideranging consequences of the Republican Health plans drastic cuts to the Medicaid Program would be the end to any possible progress weve made so far in fighting the opioid and heroin epidemic. The opioid addiction epidemic has been deeply felt in communities across the state of new mexico. A for years without adequate treatment resources, our state has suffered through some of the highest ratesof opioid and heroin addiction in the nation. And i would just note that todat a story came out about how we hospitalized in the er longterm care, or hospital care, 1. 3 million Americans Last year because of this epidemic. Rec however, when provided with an opportunity to receive comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation, people that suffer through the trial of opioid addiction can and do turn their lives around. Evidencebased treatment works but its only possible when we devote real resources to pay fot it. And so much of that comes directly through the Medicaid Program. As you can see on this chart, medicaid pays for 30 of opioid medicationassisted treatment in new mexico, 30 . Its the foundation that you build on for opioid treatment. And in states like West Virginia and ohio and kentucky, medicaid pays for nearly half of opioid treatment payments. This came up just outside when the white house hosted its first Drug Commission on combating drug addiction and the opioid crisis. Now, the president s top advisers probably didnt hear what they wouldve liked to from the advocates who have been on the front lines fighting the growing opioid crisis. Par for example, dr. Joe parts, the medical director for theio National Council for Behavioral Health told the president s commission quote, medicaid is the Largest National payor for addiction and Mental Health treatment. Since the majority of increased opioid deaths and suicide occur in young and middleaged adults, which is the Medicaid Expansion population, the Medicaid Expansion must he maintained and completed, end quote. It is nothing short of hypocrisy. For the Trump White House to claim it is taking steps to address the Opioid Epidemic when it is helping republicans insl congress pushed through legislation that would end the Medicaid Program as we know it. Slashing hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding from the Medicaid Program, which will ultimately pass all of those costs on to the states. Let me give you a sense for just how big a burden that would be here in new mexico its estimated that our State Government would have to either come up with a way to raise 11 billion of new taxes over the next decade, or cut the equivalent amount of coverage for hundreds of thousands of new mexicans who rely on the program. Ta that is a hit to the statelus budget of a billion plus dollars a year. This would have an especially hard in fact, on our states world community, when you go to small towns in new mexico like or last fall on a Rural Health Care listening tour, you see right away the vital role that hospitals play in rural communities. In most cases these hospitals are the only Health Care Providers for many miles in any direction. And hospitals are also often a major employer in these smallra towns. Rural Health Providers face enormous challenges because it is financially difficult to care for populations that live over older, less affluent, and more prone to chronic diseases than those in more urban and suburban communities. He Medicaid Expansion and the needbased tax credits for individual Health Care Market plans in the aca have been critical financial lifelines for rural Health Providers. Thanks to the coverage gains that weve seen in new mexico, instead of seeing uninsured patients coming to the emergency room in during expensive medical emergencies, our rural Health Providers are able to help new mexicans live healthier lives with primary care and a preventative medicine approach. And when medical emergencies do arise, new mexicans have coverage that helps rural Health Providers cover those expenses. If President Trump and republicans in the Senate Passed their Health Care Bill, that all could go away. Some of our rural Health Providers may very well have to close up shop. Right now more than onethird of rural hospitals are already at risk of closure. But if you look at where the hospitals that have been forced to shut down in recent years are located, they are almost all in states that chose not to expand medicaid. We should learn a lesson from that, mr. President. I know for a fact that if hospitals shut down, Health Care Delivery in rural new mexico would be decimated. These and Economic Impact would be severe in these small towns. Sm single hospital closes in a small rural community, nearly 100 jobs are lost, taking moreee than 5 million directly out of the local economy. A recent report by the Economic Policy institute estimates that if Congress Passes trumpcare into law, new mexico alone would see a loss of almost 50,00 50,0s by the year 2022. Thanks in large part to the major coverage gains that weve seen under the aca, the Health Care Sector has been new mexicos strongest area of job t growth for the last five years. New mexico added over 4000 Health Care Jobs in 2015 alone. Couple of months ago i met with students at Central New Mexico Community college in albuquerque who are training for those Health Care Jobs. These bright young people want to make careers out of making their communities healthier and safer. But with this dangerous legislation moving to washington, they are all worried about what it might mean for the future career plans. Why would we want to rip the rug out from under them by wreaking havoc on the nations healthsk care system . Again, you would have to ask yourself why a republican why a republican so intent on rushing through a massive piece of legislation before we can even understand if the potential harmful consequences. , as i said earlier, i have heardw from literally thousands of new mexicans who have called in or written or come up to me on the street to oppose this legislation. Many of them have told me how it will directly impact their families. I could pick any one of these stories to demonstrate whats at stake in this debate, but ill leave you with just one. Xico, w britney from aztec new mexico wrote to me about her two Young Children who were diagnosed with a rare form of Food Allergies that created absolutely unaffordable costs through her husband employerprovided health plan. Britney said that she and her husband were averaging three doctors visits a week, and were copay above water from paying copays, end quote. After applying for medicaid, shs and her husband have full coverage or their childrens medical costs britney wrote to me and said, for us medicaid is literally lifesaving work please do not take away this program or any of the aca. It may not be perfect and it could use some work, but taking it away altogether would be catastrophic for so many people like my family. Thats what she wrote to me, mr. President. U im going to urge President Trump and a certain want to urge my republican colleagues here in the senate to listen to that it urgent message. Its time to turn the page on the disastrous policy path that is repeal and replace, so we can finally get to work on actually fixing those things in thesy Current Health care system that we all agree need work. Our common goal, regardless of whether we are republicans or democrats, that we should all be working toward is making Quality Health care more accessible, more affordable for all americans. I would welcome a good faith effort to tackle that challenge. Because Health Care Policy shouldnt be a political football. Aol it should be about giving peace of mind to the millions of americans, like annamarie and las cruces, like brittany and aztec, who are only one diagnosis the way from a crisise if we dont get this right. Thank you, mr. President. R. Pree and i would reserve the balance of my time. Mr. President . The senator from illinois. Mr. President , over the past act has made tremendous strides and expand Health Care Coverage for hardworking americans and the families who need it, and i think my colleague for his stories and i would like to add my own. While the law could certainly be improved, the way to do it is not bypassing trumpcare, which even President Trump has admitted is and i quote, a mean bill. Unfortunately, Republican Senate leadership has indicatedg whatever it is that the republicans are crafting and secret behind closed doors, its going to be very similar to the version of trumpcare that has passed the house. That is simply bad news. The version of trumpcare that passed the house could cost 23 million americans including 385,000 illinoisans to lose Health Care Coverage. It would make it more expensive for Older Americans and working people, especially those with existing conditions, to purchase interest. Trumpcare would cause the premiums and outofpocket costs to simply skyrocket. The average illinoisans payment would increase by 700. Trumpcare would also make Critical Services like Maternity Care or new moms and Mental Health and Substance AbuseServices Significantly more expensive, even though there desperately needed. That is extremely meanspirited. Making matters worse it would also put veterans on thesp chopping block. Specifically, trumpcare would prohibit veterans who are eligible for Va Health Care from receiving tax credits to help them afford insurance in the individual market place. However, theres a big difference between the eligible for Va Health Care and being enrolled in va. Oftentimes thats not even a choice that you can make. According to the Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, as many as 7 million of our veterans are eligible for va care but are not enrolled, preventing them from receiving tax credits would amount to a massive tax hike that would force them to pay thousands of dollars extra each year. Thats not just mean. Its unacceptable. Theres been ample reporting indicating that Congressional Republicans knew exactly whate they were doing. They couldve included a fix to this but purposefully did not because that wouldve made their bill in eligible to be considered under the Senate Budget reconciliation process which only requires 51 votes. Thats because this huge block of the veterans tax credit language you need to be considered in committees of jurisdiction. And that would entail Holding Public hearings and markups in committees which would been revealed to the american peoplen what exactly is in the republican bill. Apparently, the cost of public scrutiny is too high for Senate Republican leaders who are willing to raise taxes on veterans so they can hide this bad bill from the american people. As a result, the appalling remain unfixed and up to 7 million veterans remain on the chopping block. Thats not the only way trumpcare would harm veterans either. Its massive cuts to medicaid would have a direct impact onet veterans since nearly 2 million veterans across our country, including 60,000 veterans in my own home state of illinois, rely on medicaid for the Health Care Coverage. Thats one in ten veterans. Or merely 1 million of theseage. Veterans, medicaid is the only source of coverage. Many of them ar