Elizabeth Warren's Blistering Rant Against the GOP Health Care Plan Shows Exactly What's at Stake
"You go explain to people who are disabled, how they're gonna lose their opportunity to just get a little help."
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The American Health Care Act, the GOP's effort to replace Obamacare, is currently in peril as Republican lawmakers struggle to get enough votes. A rousing speech made by Senator Elizabeth Warren last week at an office hours session in Massachusetts captures exactly why so many politicians on both sides of the aisles are voting "no" on the controversial bill.
In the clip, Senator Warren tears into the GOP for proposing legislation that could strip essential care from tens of millions of Americans.
"You come explain to the families all over my state that have lost a loved one to opioids how you're gonna suck $5 billion out of treatment for opioid addiction," Warren said, addressing the GOP. "I want the Republicans to go explain that. It's not my job. That's their job to explain."
Watch Warren's full speech:
"You wanna do repeal and replace? Let me see what you're gonna do with it, guys. You get your plan together and see how it works, and you come explain to the American people how 24 million of them lost coverage. You come explain to the families all over my state that have lost a loved one to opioids how you're gonna suck $5 billion out of treatment for opioid addiction. You go explain that. You go meet the families and the healthcare providers at our community health centers and explain to them how they're gonna have to cut services, how some of them are gonna have to fold up and say no to the families that they provide the only lifeline to good health available to them. You go explain to people who are disabled, how they're gonna lose their opportunity to just get a little help, so that they can get out of the house, so they don't have to be institutionalized, so they don't have to be housebound. You guys go explain that. And you guys who want to cut Medicaid, you go explain to the parents of children with complex medical needs how the help that they've been getting from Medicaid that lets them keep those children at home, that lets them help those children flourish within their abilities, how you're just gonna take that away and send those children off to be warehoused somewhere else. I want the Republicans to go explain that. It's not my job. That's their job to explain."
Her full statement is below:
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Megan Friedman is the former managing editor of the Newsroom at Hearst. She's worked at NBC and Time, and is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
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