Catholic Health Association slams Trump's "utterly unconscionable" health care plan

Sister Carol Keehan, the president of the Catholic Health Association, recently shared some strong words for President Trump and his plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.

“This is a bill to move wealth from the lowest-income Americans to the wealthiest,” Keehan said of the original bill according to the Catholic publisher Crux. “That’s an important thing for the people in this country to understand."

Calling Trump's health care proposal "utterly unconscionable," Keehan criticized the lack of transparency throughout the Republicans' repeal process. "We have no insight," she said. "The administration has been, I would say, singular in not being in contact with health care providers on almost any issue."

Keehan said she believes that Trump's health care plan isn't actually about health care at all, but actually a "companion to the big tax cut," arguing that his plan is simply a way to pay for the cuts and not about giving people coverage."If you read anything about Catholic social teaching, if you read what Pope Francis said about what ought to guide our decisions in health care, it is absolutely deplorable."

In regards to how other Catholics feel about Trump's health care proposal, Keehan said that "bishops have said that this is a very flawed bill, which should not be passed until it’s fixed."

Keehan also said that the Catholic community has formed a united front on this specific issue.

The president has been pushing for Republicans to pass a health care bill this week, but it still doesn't appear that Republicans will have enough votes to pass the bill in the House. CNN reported:

Roughly 16 members are undecided, but thus far, there are no public tweaks to the bill. Speculation has centered around additional money for high risk pools, for instance.

"Obviously some members are looking for changes, but we've not made any at this point, and don't know that we will," a GOP leadership aide said Tuesday afternoon.

As originally introduced, the bill would leave 24 million fewer people insured by 2026 than under Obamacare, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said.