What They’re Saying: Editorial Boards Across The Country Blast Republicans’ Secrecy On Health Care Bill

CALIFORNIA

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial:  Senate should not hide health care bill

“Washington Republicans know they have a problem when President Trump calls the party’s prized health care plan ‘mean.’ That’s partly why nervous GOP senators are hiding from the public while devising changes to a rough-edged blueprint handed them by the House. At issue is demolishing the Obama-era health coverage that added millions of consumers who lacked insurance. Junking the system became a top priority for Republicans since the day the system began seven years ago, but rolling it back is turning into a nightmare.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 6/15/17]

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Washington Examiner Editorial:  Republicans, bring your healthcare bill out for inspection

“Republicans are becoming a party that won't take the obviously helpful step of preparing the field before engaging in battle. Like President Trump, congressional Republicans get ready to make major moves by shutting their intentions off from the disinfecting reach of daylight. In the latest case, their secrecy surrounds the writing of a healthcare bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made it clear recently that he intends to speed the Affordable Health Care Act through the Senate. But the bill has not been made public, and the regular order of a committee process has been abandoned.” [Washington Examiner, 6/13/17]

FLORIDA

Miami Herald Editorial:  Secrecy surrounding healthcare bill makes us sick

“Here’s the one thing Americans know for sure about the Senate Republicans’ Obamacare replacement bill: Millions of them — make that tens of millions of them — will lose health insurance. Insurance that helped them get preventive care, surgery, cancer treatment. Care in spite of pre-existing conditions. Care that kept minor conditions from getting worse — and more expensive to treat. Care that didn’t bankrupt a family. Care that, despite the overheated GOP rhetoric blasting the Affordable Care Act, level-headed Republican governors provided for their state’s residents. Whatever else is in the bill, however, is anyone’s guess. Republican leaders in the Senate are deciding how deeply they will disrupt the lives of their constituents in secret. Turns out, arrogance and cowardice are simply two sides of the same coin.” [Miami Herald, 6/18/17]

IDAHO

Idaho Mountain Express Editorial:  McConnell buries health-care debate in back room

“Rather than returning from bitter partisanship to reasoned deliberation as promised, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is engaged in winner-take-all tactics that have buried the health-care debate in a back room. Last week, while the media was mostly distracted by former FBI Director James Comey’s Senate testimony, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., called out McConnell for the manner in which he is manipulating the legislative process in service of the Republican campaign promise to end Obamacare and his obstructionist power. With no real plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, congressional conservatives have struggled to propose a workable replacement. The House of Representatives passed its version without either extended debate or the usual Congressional Budget Office analysis of costs and consequences.” [Idaho Mountain Express, 6/14/17]

ILLINOIS

Peoria Journal Star Editorial:  Shush ... it’s only your health care

“Nothing good happens under cover of darkness in D.C. The Republican diet on Capitol Hill is being supplemented with heavy doses of vitamin D these days, so sunshine-deprived is the GOP’s American Health Care Act. According to a story in the New York Times, Senate GOP leaders have put the legislation on a fast track, moving forward without so much as a single public hearing. By comparison, the Affordable Care Act — aka ObamaCare — was an absolute model of transparency: more than a year in the making, with endless public hearings and hundreds of amendments and 25 consecutive days of floor debate in the Senate alone before passage there in late 2009.” [Peoria Journal Star, 6/15/17]

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial:  Senate Republicans want to keep you in the dark on health care repeal

“Republicans in the U.S. House were rightly criticized last month for moving way too fast to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. They voted on a slap-dash bill even before the Congressional Budget Office had a chance to score it. Only weeks later, after the bill’s supporters had a chance to run and hide, did the CBO announce that it would strip 23 million Americans of health insurance. Now Republicans in the Senate are trying to ram through their own version of health care reform, moving so quickly, secretly and cynically as to put the House to shame in their mastery of the dark arts.” [Chicago Sun-Times, 6/16/17]

Chicago Tribune Editorial:  Senators, show your work: Fix Obamacare in the sunlight

“Lawmakers are wrangling with a series of tough questions: Will those who have pre-existing conditions still be able to buy insurance, as they do under Obamacare? How and when would Medicaid be scaled back for those who gained coverage in the Obamacare-fueled expansion? What about penalties for those who go without coverage, then try to buy it after they're sick? The details shouldn't be secret until the last minute before a vote.” [Chicago Tribune, 6/16/17]

MAINE

Bangor Daily News Editorial:  The three pillars of Republican health care reform: sabotage, speed, secrecy

“Secrecy breeds suspicion, so there is good reason to be very suspicious of a health care bill crafted by the Senate’s Republican leaders. They are being extremely secretive about the details of health care legislation that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. We fear Republicans’ efforts to keep the bill hidden mean that, like the House Republican bill, their legislation will leave millions of American without health insurance while driving up costs and weakening protections for others. Republicans have refused to make the bill’s language public. There are likely to be no hearings before the bill is brought to the floor for a vote, which leadership wants to hold before the July 4 recess, when few are likely paying attention. Debate will be limited.” [Bangor Daily News, 6/14/17]

Portland Press Herald Editorial:  Secret process wrong way to fix health care

“A group of 13 senators is working in secret to design their response to the House Republicans’ bill, which was passed last month without a single Democratic vote. And Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has arranged for it to go straight to the floor of the Senate, where it would need only 50 votes (plus the vice president) to pass, pushing through a major reform of one-sixth of the U.S. economy without the opposition party or the public knowing anything about its contents. By contrast, the Affordable Care Act, which has been attacked for being rushed and overly partisan, was subject to six months of hearings before several committees after it was introduced, and was debated on the floor of the Senate for 25 straight days before it passed. No one outside the group of Republican senators crafting this bill has any idea of what’s in it. The door to the hearing room might be closed, but, by now, everyone should be able to see what’s going on. If the senators thought most Americans would like their bill, they would be showing it to us. The fact that they don’t want us to know what they are up to tells us all we need to know.” [Portland Press Herald, 6/18/17]

MARYLAND

Baltimore Sun Editorial:  An unhealthy secrecy shrouds the Senate's bill to replace Obamacare

“So why would today's Senate Republicans do exactly what they complained (without basis) that the Democrats did in 2009-2010? What is in their bill that they want to hide, at least for now? Could it be that it's not much better than what the House came up with, and which the major medical associations and patient advocacy groups opposed? After seven years of characterizing Obamacare as an utter disaster, shouldn't it have been easy to come up with something even marginally better? That they would proudly wave from the dome of the Capitol to the cheers of the masses who have waited so long to be rescued from the Affordable Care Act?” [Baltimore Sun, 6/16/17]

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston Globe Editorial:  The GOP’s sneak attack on health care

“Republican senators have been talking among themselves, trying to come to agreement on a workable version ever since. So what changes are being made, and how would the Senate Republicans bill address the problems the CBO found in the House measure? We don’t know. There have been no hearings, no released drafts, no informational meetings. What’s more, this week, the Senate bill-writers will finish their draft and send it to the Congressional Budget Office for analysis without releasing the legislation to the public. The apparent goal is to get the legislation scored — a Senate requirement — and hold a vote before the bill or its effects are widely digested by the public. Indeed, if they don’t release the bill until after the CBO’s report, and hold to their plan to take a vote on the legislation before their July Fourth recess, the public will have almost no time to absorb it, let alone convey their sentiments to their lawmakers.” [Boston Globe, 6/14/17]

MINNESOTA

Minneapolis Star Tribune Editorial:  GOP senators from Midwest shouldn't aid in gutting Medicaid

“While text for the Senate Republicans’ bill has not been released, reports indicate that Medicaid is still in the political cross hairs. It is an outrage that the text of the bill has not yet been made public. The rush job and secrecy amount to congressional malpractice. Tinkering with Medicaid without public hearings or input should alone be reason to vote against the bill, especially when the nation’s leading medical provider groups oppose the legislation.” [Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/13/17]

MISSOURI

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial:  GOP Senate quietly resuscitates a 'mean' health care bill

“Behind closed doors, a group of 13 GOP senators has all but completed work on a Senate substitute. No one outside the Senate leadership knows details, including its cost. No public hearings on it are scheduled. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is leaning toward sending it over to the Congressional Budget Office for a quick analysis and then bringing it to a vote before the Senate adjourns for the July 4th holiday. This process defies two centuries of Senate tradition that says the upper chamber is the statesmanlike brake on the passions of the more raucous House. It defies everything that various GOP senators said last month.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/14/17]

MONTANA

Billings Gazette Editorial:  Do health care reform without harm

“Jon Tester is on the outside with the other Senate Democrats and the American public. Republican Sen. Steve Daines last week told The Gazette that he is shut out of the secret health care sessions, too. Daines has been a “repeal and replace” advocate, but he must know that ripping away the good parts of the ACA will have devastating effects on Montanans. A stealth repeal that merely eliminates funding would also leave Montanans uncovered, clinics unpaid and hospitals struggling to keep their doors open.” [Billings Gazette, 6/18/17]

NEBRASKA

Lincoln Journal Star Editorial:  Obamacare repeal must be done transparently

“So far, the GOP has failed to govern in a transparent manner when it comes to replacing the existing health care law. Democracy is ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people.’ Voting in officials who will change the law is democratic. A single party constructing the bill in complete secrecy, without any public hearings to date, so that it can quickly be passed before being fully understood, is not.” [Lincoln Journal Star, 6/17/17]

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Concord Monitor Editorial:  The secret show behind the circus

“The panel, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is working behind closed doors in hopes of passing a bill that guts Obamacare quickly by bypassing as many hearings and as much public scrutiny as possible. The panel is working in secret because the bill it produces will take health insurance away from millions of people and drive up premiums for millions more. Some of those people live in New Hampshire, where about 50,000 people gained coverage under Obamacare.

The president, who praised the draconian House health care bill a few months ago, recently called it ‘mean’ and urged the Senate to open the purse strings a bit to keep from hurting so many people. But if Republicans were proud of their replacement bill they wouldn’t be hiding it.” [Concord Monitor, 6/15/17]

NEW YORK

New York Times Editorial:  The Senate Hides Its Trumpcare Bill Behind Closed Doors

“A coterie of Republicans is planning to have the Senate vote before July 4 on a bill that could take health insurance away from up to 23 million people and make changes to the coverage of millions of others. And they are coming up with the legislation behind closed doors without holding hearings, without consulting lawmakers who disagree with them and without engaging in any meaningful public debate. There is no mystery why the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, is trying to push this bill through quickly. The legislation would repeal major provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Opening it to scrutiny before a vote would be the congressional equivalent of exposing a vampire to sunlight.” [New York Times, 6/13/17]

Watertown Daily Times Editorial:  On second thought ...: D.C. Republicans use tactics they once decried on health care

“After failing to drum up enough support for its first version of the bill in late March, House Republicans voted to pass a new plan in early May after making it public just a few days before. They didn’t even wait to have the bill scored by the Congressional Budget Office. And now the Senate Republicans appear to be withholding their version from public scrutiny until the last minute; they reportedly want to vote on it before the July 4 recess. Democrats have complained that they have been unable to see what’s in it — so it’s obvious that they haven’t been invited to participate.” [Watertown Daily Times, 6/15/17]

New York Daily News Editorial:  Grand Opaque Party: The Republican health-care secrecy act 

“Perhaps the Senate — Mitch McConnell, majority leader — has heard of hearings. Instead, McConnell drew the exact wrong lesson from the public relations shellacking the House got after ramming its Obamacare-repealing bill through sans public review. Rather than open up the process, McConnell’s working group has huddled behind closed doors, with no committee consideration, no debate and, apparently, no plans for amendments when the plan gets to the floor. For a few hours Tuesday, they even tried barring filmed hallway interviews with senators. It took reporters expressing their outrage, and embarrassed members unable to defend their leaders’ decisions, for McConnell & Co. to reverse course. If only they could be similarly shamed out of stripping health coverage from millions of Americans.” [New York Daily News, 6/13/17]

OHIO

Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial:  Sen. Portman, stand up for health reform that doesn't hurt Ohioans or cripple fight against opioid abuse

“That is, the Senate bill -- now unconscionably being hammered out behind closed doors -- could create a political stampede of anger once its details emerge. So, one possible fig leaf Republicans senators seeking political cover could apply might be opioid-treatment funds for states. Portman, as noted, has called for that. But it's a false promise. Ending Medicaid expansion in a glide path with caps would hurt hundreds of thousands of Ohioans -- and the state's already precarious bottom line. Fig-leaf compromises can't save a hopelessly bad bill. Sen. Rob Portman needs to stand up and speak up for Ohioans. And he needs to vote ‘no’ if he can't sway the majority.” [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/16/17]

Akron Beacon Journal Editorial: Beneath Rob Portman

“All of this disruption would result from a legislative process that should embarrass Portman. For all the back and forth among Republicans, the episode has been rushed, opaque and without the months of hearings, discussions and time devoted to the Affordable Care Act. And Republicans complained about that process. They seemingly are ready to take a final bill straight to the Senate floor for a vote. This is what the invariably informed and careful Sen. Portman is prepared to support? And to what end? Republicans propose taking from the needy to clear the way for tax cuts directed almost entirely to the wealthy. Rob Portman campaigned for something much better, and with Republicans having just 52 votes, he has the clout to push for a more effective approach and outcome. As it is, this process is beneath him.” [Akron Beacon Journal, 6/16/17]

SOUTH DAKOTA

Argus Leader Editorial:  Too much secrecy with health care bill

“Since Thune is a major player in the AHCA process and prides himself on home-state outreach, the following questions persist: Is this how history should be made? Should a bill that impacts one-sixth of the national economy be thrust into law so fast and furiously, with many of its details kept secret? Thune, among 13 Senators who met with Trump at the White House to discuss the effort, has joined Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in making this largely a stealth effort, using the national media’s emphasis on Russia-related investigations as cover. Considering the AHCA has failed to generate majority public support in any of the 50 states – including South Dakota, not exactly a Democratic stronghold – this process can only be seen as strategically designed to avoid public scrutiny of the bill’s merits.” [Argus Leader, 6/15/17]

WASHINGTON

Seattle Times Editorial:  Washington families have a lot to lose if ACA goes away

“Instead of helping make health insurance more affordable for families, President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans want to help the wealthy pay lower taxes. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health-care working group is busy negotiating an overhaul of the ACA behind closed doors without benefit of public hearings or debate, causing even greater uncertainty in the Washington state insurance market and elsewhere across the nation. Democrats like U.S. Sen. Patty Murray fear the Senate’s secret bill could strip away health insurance from millions of Americans.” [Seattle Times, 6/13/17]

WEST VIRGINIA

Charleston Gazette-Mail Editorial:  How long will Sen. Capito give WV on health care?

“Many observers hoped that Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who is somewhat moderate, would rebel against her party in the Senate and save millions of Americans from losing care. However, her office revealed last week that she will kill the ACA in a slightly softer manner — phasing out the Medicaid expansion over seven years, perhaps from 2020 to 2027. That’s a bit gentler, but it still would strip care from 170,000 West Virginians, and millions more nationwide, eventually.” [Charleston Gazette-Mail, 6/13/17]

WISCONSIN

Wisconsin State Journal Editorial:  Slow down and get health care bill right

“Johnson shouldn’t roll over if his Senate leaders unveil their alternative to the ACA soon with demands for a quick vote. Instead, he should continue to insist on time to digest it, with ample opportunity to improve the package. This is literally a life-and-death issue for some people in Wisconsin and across the nation. Big changes to the ACA could dramatically alter their health insurance and the cost and quality of care.” [Wisconsin State Journal, 6/16/17]

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