Three prominent Pa. Dems criticize GOP health care plan

(Harrisburg) — While Republicans in the US Senate push for major changes to the health care system, three prominent Democrats in Pennsylvania are criticizing the plan.

US Senator Bob Casey, Governor Tom Wolf, and Attorney General Josh Shapiro want the GOP to scrap their proposal.

The three Democrats joined a conference call this morning to argue against the Republican plans to overhaul the health care system.

US Senator Bob Casey says families all across the state will be impacted by changes to Medicaid.

Republicans have proposed cutting future funding for the program.

Governor Tom Wolf says the legislation is disastrous and will make the system worse.

“These plans do nothing to lower the cost of insurance, combine deductibles, nothing to lower the cost of premiums. These plans do nothing to lower the cost of health care. In fact, these plans have been projected to make the problems worse for many families,” says Wolf. “When you examine these plans that have been thrown around in Washington by the Republicans, it’s hard to find any benefits. It’s hard to find anything in these plans that solve the problems that Republicans have been complaining about for years.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office partly agrees with Wolf – it predicts premiums and deductibles will rise dramatically, and cuts to Medicaid will leave millions without coverage.

However, younger, healthy people would pay less for healthcare.gov insurance under the GOP plan, while older people would pay much more.

US Senator Republican Pat Toomey supports the GOP effort, saying that Medicaid is unsustainable and the Affordable Care Act is failing.