Cassidy: Health legislation should lower premiums, fulfill 'contract' with voters

Americans deserve health care legislation that lowers premiums and allows for affordable, adequate coverage of preexisting conditions, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) today told hospital leaders at the AHA Annual Membership Meeting. Cassidy, a critic of the bill passed by the House last week, said, “I think the AHCA frankly was written to set up tax reform, and all that money that would be used to pay for coverage instead is going to be used to pay down the bill for tax reform.” He said that revised Senate legislation should fulfill President Trump’s promise to continue coverage, lower premiums and protect preexisting conditions. “The average voter in my state, or any other state, when they heard lower cost, they weren’t thinking [in terms of] a CBO score, they were thinking of lower premiums,” he said. Cassidy urged the field to carry this message directly to Capitol Hill. “If they’re a Democrat ask them to look at the Patient Freedom Act,” said Cassidy. “For Republicans, you gotta push that we have to fulfill that contract that President Trump made with the American voter. If we can get the two to begin to speak, then we’re going to come up with something that’s not a Republican plan and not a Democratic plan, but an American plan that benefits our patients.”