Former President Barack Obama ripped into the newly released Senate Republican Obamacare replacement plan in a Facebook post Thursday, saying the legislation is "not a health care bill" and contains "fundamental meanness."
Obama wrote that he realized the flaws in the Affordable Care Act, his administration's signature legislation, and Republicans' interest in repealing it, but denounced any support for the health care bill laid out by Senate Republicans.
"I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party. Still, I hope that our senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what's really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did," Obama wrote.
Obama also said that he sees the ACA is not perfect but represents a step forward for the U.S. on health care policy. He included in the post that if Republicans were able to put together a new plan that is better than the ACA, he would openly support it.
"If the Republicans can put together a plan that is demonstratively better than the improvements we made to our health care system, that covers as many people at less cost, I would gladly and publicly support it," Obama wrote.
He stated the new health care bill, called the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, is a "massive transfer of wealth" to the country's richest individuals.
"The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill," Obama posted. "It's a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else."
Throughout the post, Obama said many would be harmed if the bill made it through the Senate.
"Simply put, if there's a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family—this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation," Obama wrote.
Read the whole post here.