Trumpcare Update: Senate Democrats Protest Republican Healthcare Act For Being Written 'In Secret'

To push the Republican senators to open the healthcare debate to the public, Senate Democrats launched a protest Monday against the secrecy around the revival of the Republican party’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) and rescission of Obamacare. Among the various tactics adopted, the Democrats held the Senate floor late night to highlight the repercussions of repealing Obamacare.

“Republicans are drafting this bill in secret because they’re ashamed of it, plain and simple,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said in a statement, according to multiple reports.

“These are merely the first steps we’re prepared to take in order to shine a light on this shameful Trumpcare bill and reveal to the public the GOP’s true intentions: to give the uber-wealthy a tax break while making middle-class Americans pay more for less health care coverage. If Republicans won’t relent and debate their healthcare bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn’t expect business as usual in the Senate,” the statement further read.

Read: Trumpcare Plan Set For Changes

Using the hashtag, #Holdthefloor, Democratic Senators including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D- Massachusetts) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California), took to Twitter and shared their views about the healthcare bill stirring a debate.

Reactions kept pouring in on the social media as #Holdthefloor trended all over Twitter.

Promising to get rid of Obamacare, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had set an informal June 30 deadline to pass the GOP health bill before the July 4 holiday. The House of Representatives had passed the AHCA with a narrow margin last month.

Read: What Happens When You Have Obamacare? Trumpcare Replacement Passes House

The Republicans have 10 days to draft a final version of the bill, receive a score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and hold a vote. The CBO in its analysis in May highlighted that 23 million Americans would become uninsured under the new GOP bill.

While millions of people will lose the coverage, the GOP health bill is also likely to result in a $600 billion tax cut, mostly for the wealthy people, according to a report published by Vox in May.

The Democrats fear the bill is being kept under wraps to avoid floor debate. By bringing the Senate business to a halt, the Democrats want the revived version of AHCA to be referred to the Senate Committee despite Connel’s decision of not taking up the legislation, the Washington Examiner reported.

According to a poll released by Quinnipiac University in March, only 17 percent of Americans support the Republican healthcare bill.

“One out of every seven Americans, 14 percent, think they will lose their health insurance under the Republican plan. That 14 percent includes 27 percent of voters in families with household income below $30,000, 18 percent of working class families and 14 percent of middle-class families,” the poll said.

"If their U.S. Senator or member of Congress votes to replace Obamacare with the Republican health care plan, 46 percent of voters say they will be less likely to vote for that person, while 19 percent say they will be more likely and 29 percent say this vote won't matter,” the poll underlined.