As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell counts the dwindling number of GOP votes for the Republican healthcare bill, the  Congressional Budget Office tallied the potential losses — of insurance coverage for millions of people. Oh, the entire population of 13 states, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)  says, calling the measure a “humanitarian disaster.”

Sure, it gets rid of Obamacare and its problems, but the proposed GOP Senate healthcare bill makes everything else worse, Murphy said on the Senate floor last night.

At least 22 more Americans would lose coverage under the Republicans’ Senate bill, with an estimated 49 million uninsured by 2026, the CBO report released yesterday says. That compares to  28 million lacking insurance that year under the current Obamacare.

The House bill said one million more in the U.S. would lose coverage.

Premiums would go through the roof, especially for the poor and elderly. Medicaid takes a huge hit under the Senate bill, the report says. Remember President Trump’s vow to keep it intact  He wanted less meanness, more heart?

“The largest savings would come from reductions in outlays for Medicaid – spending on the program would decline in 2026 by 26 percent in comparison with what CBO projects under current law,” the report says.

Are the Republicans courting disaster for themselves and the populace?  More GOP Senators say they are against or hedging against the bill. The measure is teetering at best. McConnell is the ringleader of the bill. (Interestingly, the  Daily Beast reports that a free government clinic helped save McConnell’s life years ago…..oh that government!)

“This CBO score should be the last straw for Republicans,” Murphy said in a statement. “Why are on earth would any senator vote for a bill that causes 22 million to lose their health care, drives up healthcare premiums, and reduces the quality of care people receive?”

“This bill is a humanitarian disaster and now CBO has confirmed this fact. Republicans should scrap this monstrosity of a bill and sit down with Democrats to craft a better path forward for our country’s health care system,” Murphy said.

Next year alone, 15 more people would be uninsured under the proposed Senate bill than under Obamacare, mostly because the penalty for not having insurance would be eliminated, the CBO says. The number of uninsured would increase to 19 million in 2020, and 22 million in 2026. It would then increase in subsequent years.

The Senate plan would reduce the deficit by $320 billion through 2017, at least $220 billion more than the estimated savings of the House bill, the report says.

 — Joe Cantlupe