Hillary Clinton has a new name for the Republican Party if Congress manages to pass the Senate health care bill: “death party.”
The Democratic presidential nominee’s Twitter account shared a study Friday afternoon from a progressive think tank, the Center for American Progress, predicting that the Senate bill could lead to between 18,000 and 27,000 additional deaths in 2026 if those people have no coverage.
“Forget death panels. If Republicans pass this bill, they’re the death party,” she tweeted.
“Death panels” is a reference to a line of attack that that was used by some Republicans amid debate on the Affordable Care Act in 2009, suggesting that Obamacare would have the government determine whether elderly people or people with special needs “deserve” care.
The discussion surrounded a provision that would have used Medicare funds to pay for doctors to discuss end-of-life options with patients — but that proposal did not end up becoming part of the ACA.
This is Clinton’s fourth tweet about health care since the Senate bill was released Thursday morning. She encouraged people to call their senators about “Trumpcare,” and she retweeted a former adviser to her campaign who shared a graphic showing possible effects of proposed Medicaid cuts on children.
Earlier Friday, her Twitter account shared a Facebook post from former President Barack Obama denouncing the bill.
So far, Republicans in the Senate have expressed some reservations with the bill, and most of them are still reviewng the text, according to CNN’s whip count.
But several have pointed out that the Republican bill improves on Obamacare, which they say was a large-government approach to health care that does not deliver the benefits it promised for patients.
Sen. David Perdue of Georgia said: “After reviewing the initial working draft, I believe it includes many substantial fixes to our broken health care system…Obviously, this will not be the final bill, but I’m hopeful that we can resolve the remaining disagreements and deliver a consensus bill that is a vast improvement over Obamacare.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden also tweeted criticism of the Senate measure.
“The Senate health bill isn’t about health care at all — it’s a wealth transfer: slashes care to fund tax cuts for the wealthy & corporations.”
His tweet echoed Obama’s message the day before: “The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill,” Obama’s Facebook post read. “It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America.”
