Dear Editor,
If you’re wondering what you should be focusing on in the month of June, there is only one thing: defending the ACA aka Obamacare.  Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are secretly twisting arms, cutting deals, and using everything they can to get the votes to pass TrumpCare.
They’re still a few votes short of repeal, but they think they can get there. If they can get the votes, they’ll pass it in the dead of night, without reading the final bill, without public input, and without a CBO Score. And, if they succeed, millions of Americans will lose access to health care. This is a matter of life and death—and they’re planning for a vote for the last week of June.
The American Health Care Act (AHCA) was created by and voted on by the House, then sent over to the Senate for their input. We have heard that the Senate’s version is expected to be about 80{44c616e11cf70d617c8dd92fb0bc15f41001df771f775c6b004238009c89a3f0} of the House’s bill with some changes.
Since the Senate will not publish their own version before voting on it, your guess is as good as mine as to what’s in it.  Judging from the AARP’s analysis of the AHCA, this bill repeals a 0.9 percent payroll tax on higher-income workers, which would remove over $100 billion over ten years from the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund.  This would hasten the insolvency of Medicare and diminish Medicare’s ability to pay for services in the future.  The bill also removes nearly $25 billion in required payments from pharmaceutical companies over ten years from the Part B trust fund which would increase premiums for people on Medicare.
The bill unfairly penalizes older Americans with an Age Tax. The Age Tax would significantly increase premiums.
I urge anyone reading this to call/contact your two Senators and let them know that you expect a “No” vote from them on the expected Senate version of healthcare.
Sen. Richard Shelby: (205) 731-1384 (Birmingham Office) Sen. Luther Strange (202) 224-4124 (D.C. Office)
By the way, the biggest spender on lobbying by industry for the first 3 months of 2017 is the Pharmaceuticals/Health Products industry at $78,469,713.
Karen Barwick
Pell City