*This letter was also sent to Senator McCain and Senator Murkowski

August 3, 2017

The Honorable Susan Collins
United States Senate
Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senator Collins:

On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to thank you for your vote against the so-called “skinny” repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA).  Passage of this amendment to H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), would have led to millions of Americans losing health insurance and much higher costs for older Americans and those with pre-existing conditions.

It is also likely that passage of this amendment would have led to negotiations with the House on their version of the AHCA, which we oppose because it would undermine the health security of seniors and people with disabilities.  The House-passed AHCA would, among other harmful provisions, reduce Medicaid funding by more than $800 billion over ten years, eliminate the Medicaid expansion, allow insurers to charge older enrollees five times more than younger ones, replace the ACA subsidies with tax credits that would fail to make comprehensive coverage affordable and reduce the Medicare Part A Hospital Insurance trust fund’s solvency.

The National Committee supports your call for a bipartisan process with committee hearings and stakeholder input to develop health reform proposals that will improve the ACA by increasing health insurance coverage and reducing out-of-pocket costs for individuals regardless of age or health status.  We look forward to working with you and your colleagues to achieve these goals while opposing proposals that would put millions of seniors at risk of losing Medicaid coverage to pay for their nursing home bills and other long term-care services and supports and would increase health insurance costs for older adults not yet eligible for Medicare

Again, thank you for voting for all Americans by opposing health care legislation that would have had disastrous consequences for millions of people.

Sincerely,

Max-Richtman
President and CEO