Annapolis, Md.– At the moment Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that Senate Republicans will include language in the GOP tax bill to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan was at the Republican Governors Association’s (RGA) annual donor party in Austin Texas mingling with the billionaires who will benefit most from the GOP tax plan.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a success for Maryland families. The law cut Maryland’s uninsured rate from 15 percent to 6.6 percent, and has covered nearly 300 thousand Marylanders under Medicaid expansion. If Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans successfully repeal the individual mandate, it will result in the loss of healthcare for Maryland’s working families, and add tremendous new burdens to the state budget in uncompensated costs.
“Instead of celebrating with his wealthy donors at the RGA’s annual party, Governor Hogan should be fighting back against the GOP’s latest assault on working families’ healthcare,” said Maryland Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Matthews. “If he doesn’t, Marylanders will remember that when the GOP was sabotaging their healthcare and raising their taxes, Governor Hogan was hanging out in Texas with supporters of Donald Trump.”
Governor Hogan is currently at the RGA’s annual donor party in Austin, Texas for two days.
Today, McConnell announced that Senate Republicans would include a repeal of the individual mandate in their tax plan in order to pay for their billionaire tax cut. If Republicans successfully repeal the mandate, the number of Americans with health insurance would decrease by 13 million in the next decade.
Despite calls for him to enter the frontlines of the fight to save the ACA, Governor Hogan has sat on the sidelines. It was only after it was clear that TrumpCare was dead in Congress that Governor Hogan pulled a last-minute political stunt to save face.