Kaptur statement on Senate health care proposal, says “stakes could not be higher”

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Dean of the Ohio Delegation and the most senior woman serving in Congress, today released the following statement regarding the draft Senate health care bill:

"Health care is about life and death. Now that we have a draft bill from the Senate, ‎we know that Medicaid coverage will be heavily cut back. These are lifeline cuts to vital care and services for our children, seniors, those suffering from opioid addiction as well as the disabled and mentally ill.

"Americans should rise up in resounding protest from coast to coast. Caring for the most fragile and ill among us cannot be left to chance. Is not life itself a right of citizenship in our great nation?

"We all know amazing families who care for the terribly sick and infirm, and for those who will never be able to realize the dreams they once held due to illness and disability. To put them on the chopping block is un-American. It is cruel. It is not fulfilling the commitment to life, liberty, and happiness the Preamble to our Constitution promises.

"Vice President Hubert Humphrey said it eloquently: ‘The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.'

"It is against this measuring bar we must evaluate this harmful concoction that the Senate has produced from behind closed doors. We all know well when you legislate in the dark, you risk harming the American people. The stakes could not be higher."