The Koch-controlled Senate Republican Conference is going after the two billionaire brothers’ sworn enemy: the Medicaid expansion that’s broadened access to quality health care for millions of Americans.
Politico reports on the GOP’s latest assault on low-income, working American families:
This week, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is poised to clinch the elusive 51 votes he needs to pass a repeal [of Obamacare]…the new version also would gut an expansion of Medicaid that’s put millions of Americans from low-income households on the insurance rolls.
Charles and David Koch have wanted to destroy Medicaid for years — long before the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act that enabled states to launch expansions of the program. As detailed in Bridge Project’s report, “The Koch-Backed Effort to Kill Medicaid,” Koch network groups have claimed that Medicaid disincentives people to work harder, and they’ve shilled budgets that would end the program as we know it. Koch groups have also launched aggressive campaigns to block state-level Medicaid expansions in a number of states, including: Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Utah, Kansas, and Montana. Thanks to Charles and David’s efforts, “more than three million poor uninsured adults” remain in the “coverage gap” — i.e., ineligible for the program — according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Now, unsatisfied with impeding over three million Americans’ ability to access quality healthcare, the Kochs — and their GOP Senate stooges — are looking to increase that number dramatically by revoking coverage for millions.
Senator John McCain, running for reelection in 2016, says he’s decided to support the destruction of the program that’s dramatically expanded coverage for his constituents — hoping that Arizonans will be satisfied with his confession that it “[provides] him discomfort.”
McCain isn’t the only vulnerable 2016 candidate bowing in the face of Koch pressure and tossing constituents by the wayside. Sitting Senators Kelly Ayotte, Rob Portman, and Pat Toomey are supporting the legislation, risking constituent ire and rejection as they mount already-tough reelection campaigns. Reps. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Joe Heck of Nevada, both running for open Senate seats in 2016, similarly plan to support revocation of the Medicaid expansion — adding to and intensifying the NRSC’s already-numerous 2016 headaches.
As usual, Charles and David Koch are aggressively pushing a selfish agenda that advances their interests at the expense of working American families. When the Kochs win, these GOP senators’ constituents suffer.