Republicans admit to voting for Trumpcare without reading bill
A number of Republican members of Congress have admitted to not reading the Trumpcare bill prior to voting for it.
Rep. Chris Collins revealed that he, as well as a number of his lawmaker colleagues who helped pass the bill, did not read the text.
Appearing on CNN, Collins was asked if he read the bill and told presenter Wolf Blitzer: “I will fully admit, Wolf, I did not.”
The Congressman explained that he opted not to read the bill, rather leaving the task to his staff.
“But I can also assure you my staff did. We have to rely on our staff,” he said.
However, he insisted that he was not alone in not reading the bill, and that members who say they did read every word were lying.
Collins said: “I can probably tell you that I read every word, and I wouldn’t be telling you the truth, nor would any other member.”
“We rely on our staff and we rely on our committees. I’m comfortable that I understand this bill in its entirety, Wolf, without poring through every word. I’m just being quite honest, that’s the way it is,” he added.
Likewise, Rep. Thomas Garrett admitted that he too had relied on staff to read the bill rather than taking on the task himself.
“Let’s put it this way, people in my office have read all the parts of the bill. I don’t think any individual has read the whole bill, but that’s why we have staff,” Garrett said to MSNBC.
The American Health Care Act, which is predicted to leave over 24 million people in the US without insurance coverage, was narrowly passed on Thursday by Republicans in the House.
It comes after the Affordable Care Act, or Obama Care, was repealed leaving hundreds of thousands of LGBT American’s in limbo with their health.
The Medicaid expansion also widened access to poorer Americans by altering income eligibility – a factor that was crucial as trans people face unemployment with rates three times higher than the general population.
Experts have warned that the demise of ACA will have a devastating impact on mental as well as physical health, as more than half of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals have attempted suicide after being unable to access essential care.
It is estimated that PrEP is 92 percent effective at preventing HIV infections.
