WASHINGTON (CN) - Emotions flared Monday as Republicans unveiled new details about their latest proposal to repeal and replace parts of the federal health care law.
The afternoon meeting of the Senate Finance Committee got off to a raucous start hours earlier as hundreds of people, many in wheelchairs, packed the hallways of the Senate Dirsken building early Monday to make their way into the tiny hearing room.
"No cuts to Medicaid!" they shouted as soon as Rep. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, started the hearing.
One by one, U.S. Capitol police officers arrested the protesters, pulling some of them out of their wheelchairs as they carried them out of the room.
Republicans then attempted, once quiet was restored, to unravel the criticism levied against the latest plan put forth by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Bill Cassidy, R-La.
Cassidy testified that the bill will neither cut Medicaid expansion nor end protections for people with pre-existing conditions afforded under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In addition to eliminating the individual and employer mandates, provisions of the law that require each class to obtain health insurance, the proposal would switch insurance subsidies and Medicaid funding to block grants, dividing up federal funds among states based on poverty levels and other factors that impact health care costs.
Cassidy said that states would still have the flexibility to continue to fund the block-grant program, which expanded Medicaid under the PPACA, if they choose to do so.
Graham meanwhile said the proposal would also address what he called the inequitable distribution of health care funds. Right now, 40 percent of federal funds go to four states – California, New York, Maryland and Massachusetts - that make up about 20 percent of the U.S. population.
“This is not only inequitable, but unsustainable,” Graham said. “Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson restores parity among the states and reforms spending inefficiencies.”
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Graham called the Affordable Care Act a "disaster" in South Carolina, which he said had five insurers in 2014 but now has a single carrier. Next year premiums are estimated to rise more than 30 percent there, he said.
By next year, Graham added, 45 percent of all counties in the United States will have only a single provider - and in some cases no provider.
Touting the bill during testimony before the committee, Graham boasted that the bill is backed by a broad coalition including President Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and the conservative news outlet Breitbart.
But the bill is opposed by many state governors - including Republicans - and major health care groups like the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, America's Health Insurance Plans and the BlueCross BlueShield Association.
