WASHINGTON, May 4 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released the following statement after House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act:

“The bill that Republicans passed today is an absolute disaster. It really has nothing to do with health care. It has everything to do with an enormous shift of wealth from working people to the richest Americans. This bill would throw 24 million Americans off of health insurance – including thousands of Vermonters – cut Medicaid by $840 billion, defund Planned Parenthood and substantially increase premiums on older Americans. Meanwhile, it would provide a $300 billion tax break to the top 2 percent and hundreds of billions more to the big drug and insurance companies that are ripping off the American people. Our job now is to rally millions of Americans against this disastrous bill to make sure that it does not pass the Senate. Instead of throwing tens of millions of Americans off of health insurance, we must guarantee health care as a right to every American.”