Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives to speak with reporters following the successful vote to open debate on a health care bill on Capitol Hill, July 25, 2017.
The American Medical Association came out strongly against the Health Care Freedom Act on Thursday, calling it a "toxic prescription."
"Action is needed to address problems in the individual insurance market, but the so-called 'skinny' bill is a toxic prescription that would make matters worse," AMA president Dr. David Barbe said in a statement. "Eliminating the individual mandate will lead to adverse
The Senate plans to vote on the Health Care Freedom Act around midnight ET.
The skinny bill includes a series of amendments that would aim to repeal certain unpopular parts of the Affordable Care Act, like the individual and employer mandate.
Without seeing the text, the Congressional Budget Office scored the "skinny" plan Wednesday night and found that it would leave about 16 million more Americans without health insurance.
Here's the full AMA statement:
"Action is needed to address problems in the individual insurance market, but the so-called 'skinny' bill is a toxic prescription that would make matters worse. Eliminating the individual mandate will lead to adverse selection, triggering higher premiums and further destabilizing the individual market. The stated goal was to advance policies to lower premiums, but the 'skinny' bill would do the exact opposite, harming patients across the country.
"Further, the bill would result in millions more Americans without health insurance coverage.
"Again, we urge Senators to oppose the 'skinny' bill and to pivot to a bipartisan effort, working through appropriate committees of jurisdiction and regular order to fix problems and gaps in current law to enable Americans to obtain quality, affordable health insurance."