Franken Claims Senate Health Care Bill ‘Worse Than Mean — It Is Cruel’

Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) declared the legislation being considered by the U.S. Senate drafted by Republicans was “worse than mean” and that it was “cruel.”

Franken cited a New England of Journalism Medicine survey and determined that 1,000 to 2,000 “will die” should there be cuts to Medicaid, which he argued would come as a result of the legislation.

“The top 400 people in terms of tax cuts here — the amount of money that they’ll get in tax cuts would pay for Medicaid for 750,000 people,” Franken said. “The New England Journal of Medicine just put out a thing. They did a survey of all the research on this. One to two-thousand people will die if you cut 750,000 people from Medicaid. So, that means you are killing — killing them.”

“They did a survey — people on Medicaid have better health care outcomes,” he continued. “They have access to a doctor. They don’t have to have catastrophic costs. They don’t go bankrupt. This works, and it saves lives, and this is the cruel — this is mean. This is worse than mean. It is cruel. And I tell you, I travel around Minnesota and talk to those Trump voters, and they know it. I do roundtables at rural hospitals and rural nursing homes and clinics. They know it.”

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