Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) released the following statement in response to the Congressional Budget Office’s finding that the American Health Care Act (AHCA) will eliminate health care coverage for 23 Million Americans:

"Nearly three weeks ago, Republicans rammed a health care bill through the House without any analysis on how it would affect consumers. Today we learned from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the true cost of TrumpCare holds no one harmless — from outright eliminating coverage for 23 million Americans, 14 million in the next year alone, to making it wholly unaffordable to those who need it most. Now that House Republicans know the actual consequences of their votes, I hope they will denounce TrumpCare and urge their Senate colleagues to be more responsible with the health care of millions of Americans.

Additionally, House Republicans and the Trump Administration continue to create uncertainty within the nation’s health care industry— and it will cause harm to consumers, providers, and insurers.

Instead of focusing on ways to strengthen the health insurance market and protect Americans from high costs, President Trump has spent months threatening to upend the market altogether. This week, the White House continued to promote uncertainty by pushing off its decision to fund Cost Sharing Reduction Payments (CSRs) for another 90 days. These payments are essential to ensuring that families can afford their plans on the individual market, and insurers have been clear that, should CSRs not be funded, they will be forced to raise premiums and perhaps leave the market altogether.

And on top of all this, yesterday President Trump proposed a budget that will only hurt Mainers and their access to health care. Medicaid, which covers nearly a quarter of Mainers, is gutted by an additional $610 billion over ten years, on top of over $834 billion in cuts included in TrumpCare. Planned Parenthood, which provides millions of low-income women, men, and families with basic health care every year, is stripped of all federal funding. We cannot let this stand.

Playing politics with the health of millions of Americans is simply unacceptable."