Ron Wyden: “the pitch to Republican Senators this afternoon before the first vote was that it was nothing but a little bit of throat…”

“the pitch to Republican Senators this afternoon before the first vote was that it was nothing but a little bit of throat clearing--just a first step to get the conversation started. Let's be clear, nobody can pretend the stakes aren't real now. In a few minutes, the Senate will be voting on yet another version of the Senate TrumpCare bill. I call it the BCRA 3.0. It features a special gut punch to consumer protection offered by Senator Cruz. My view is, the Cruz proposal is a prescription for misery for millions of Americans dealing with serious illness and bedlam in the private insurance market. Forget, colleagues, all the talk about bringing costs down. This bill is going to send health expenses like deductibles and copayments into the stratosphere. TrumpCare 3.0, BCRA 3.0, tells insurance companies: Look, you are off the hook for basic consumer protection. You get to bring back annual and lifetime caps on coverage, and those caps would hit people who get their healthcare through their employer, as well as those who buy it for themselves in the individual market. You can forget about essential health benefits. You get to flood the market with bargain-basement insurance plans, as long as you offer one, single, comprehensive option, the kind of plan that actually works for people with preexisting conditions and, by the way, you get to price that through the roof. Under the Cruz proposal, we will be looking at a tale of two healthcare systems in America.…”