Interview with Democratic Congresswoman Linda Sanchez of California.
TRUMP: It's a great bill. I really believe we're going to have tremendous support.</s>CUOMO: Hasn't happened yet. There are certainly some challenges to this early phase coming from Republicans. They have problems in the House. Who knows what happens in the Senate? But it is a starting point to change the current the American Health Act. So, the Affordable Health Act. So, let's get the view of the other side of the aisle, the Democrats. We have Democratic Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. She's a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Now, when you look at this plan, I do see what you guys are complaining about in terms of overall coverage, that's being ducked by the right so far. But there are a couple of counter allegations. One is, a lot of people can't get coverage right now with the ACA, and with their current plan, young people, middle income people, about $40,000, $50,000, they're going to do better potentially under this new plan. What do you say to those pluses?</s>REP. LINDA SANCHEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, for younger people or middle income people, once you get sick, your out-of-pocket costs are going to be much higher than they are now. Those are things like the co-pays that you pay to visit your doctor. And pretty much what you see with this plan is, less people will be covered, at least 10 million people less, possibly more. You're going to say a bigger hit for seniors. That's why AARP has come out against the bill. You're going to see uncompensated care rise again at alarming rates. That's why the American Hospital Association is opposed to this bill. There are just so many nasty little provisions embedded in the bill that are going to make people pay more, and it's going to give them much less. So overall, it's a prescription for disaster for working families, for working families that are struggling, for seniors, for women. There are no guarantees against gender discrimination. So, it's really not a viable replacement plan. I say let's go back to ACA and let's fix some of the provisions that are problematic, instead of scrapping the whole thing and replacing it with a far inferior plan.</s>CUOMO: But I want to get into some of the things you said. But as one political question, right now, the word is unanimously that you guys aren't working with Republicans on this. No matter which faction I talk to, when I ask if they're getting any buy-in from you guy, they say no, the Democrats have been told not to work with us at this point. Is that a realistic solution for you guys? You don't have the numbers. The ACA does have its problems. Shouldn't you be working with the other side right now to fix some of these things rather than stay back and just criticizing it?</s>SANCHEZ: You know, it's funny that they say we're not working with them. We've never been allowed to be in any of the discussions. We weren't allowed to see the bill until yesterday when they presented it publicly. Nobody has ever asked the Democrats, anybody in the Democratic Party to sit down and work on this bill. So, it's kind of a false claim that, you know, we don't want to work with them. We've never been allowed. We've never had a seat at the table. They control everything and they act as if, you know, we're immaterial to proceeding with this. We have amendments. We're marking it up in my committee today, Ways and Means. Democrats have amendments to try to improve the bill. We are going to try to do what we can, but over all, the bill is fundamentally flawed. Not even Republicans agree on the bill that's been presented. I think it's just a disaster.</s>CUOMO: Well, a lot of Republicans don't agree because they don't think it goes far enough. They want Medicaid expansion out altogether and they want to replace it with what they see as more choice and freedom for states and individuals. One of the things we just heard from Congressman Mark Meadows I want your take on. He was asked about, you know, how the poor are going to do here. Are they going to have the same level of coverage and the same numbers will be covered as of right now? And he said, you know, there's a federal law that says everybody gets coverage, and all you have to do is go to a hospital and you must get care. Now, is that what qualifies as care going to an emergency room in your opinion?</s>SANCHEZ: No. What the Affordable Care Act did was reduced uncompensated care, because by expanding coverage to 20 million people that never had health insurance, they didn't have to wait until they were so sick that they walked into the emergency room and got their care there which, by the way, is the most expensive point of entry in the health care system. Instead, what ACA did was it increased coverage so people could go for routine office visits and preventive care visits at no cost. And this bill doesn't do that. It increases costs, again, on middle class families, working families, working families that are struggling. You know what it does? It's a huge tax giveaway to some of the wealthiest Americans in this country. It makes people pay more for their health care so insurance companies CEOs can get a tax break, so that the wealthiest 400 families in this country can get a tax break, so that pharmaceutical companies can get a tax break. You know, President Trump ran on helping the working class families in this country. And this is a huge tax giveaway. And, by the way, the Republicans presented this bill and were marking it up without getting a score from CBO about what it would cost or how many people would lose coverage. How insane is that to present a bill and already start moving on marking it up before you have the basic fundamental questions of answered of what is it going to cost and how many people would be covered? Because President Trump promised on the campaign trail that coverage would be great, it wouldn't diminish under this plan from ACA, and that it was going to cost less and be better health coverage. And quite frankly, it's just not. There's no way they can get around the fact that this bill does not cover as many people as the ACA covered, does not provide the quality health care and the consumer protections, they can't make those allegations. That will come out in the markups today because we're going to be going through these bills with a very fine-tooth comb.</s>CUOMO: All right. Linda Sanchez, thank you very much. This is just a starting point. Let's see what your side comes out with, what the other side comes out with and whether or not you're all willing to work together to get something for the American people. Thanks for being on</s>NEW DAY. SANCHEZ: My pleasure. Thank you.</s>CUOMO: Alisyn?</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Another campaign promise, President Trump's border wall. What do people who live on the border say about that wall? Our Van Jones went there to get "THE MESSY TRUTH," and he joins us next.