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Emotions spilling over as details of a new Republican Senate health care bill are revealed

Key differences that could impact you, your health
Posted at 7:46 PM, Jun 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-23 02:07:28-04

The bill written behind closed doors became public today with the Republicans pressing for a vote next week.

The 142 pages of rules and regulations affect you from head to toe and here are the key highlights:

  • The senate bill keeps protections for patients with pre-existing conditions
  • It still allows children to stay on their parents' plans through age 26
  • It ends the employer mandate to offer health insurance

While the politics played out in real time Thursday, raw emotions spilled over into the halls of Congress.

Capitol police dragged away protesters from outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, right after the Senate released the details of its health care plan.

Far removed from the politics and Washington, doctors in Tampa say they will continue treating patients.

"Irrespective of what comes out of the health care debate and what that looks like here at St. Joseph's... we are going to take care of these kids and do everything in our power to make them as well as possible," said Dr. Mark Mogul, a pediatrician at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital.

The bill, if passed, would reduce financial aid for millions of people to obtain health coverage.

It would offer a tax break to higher income Americans and provide $50 billion over the next four years which states could use to support insurance markets that  providers have pull out from.

Like the House bill, the Senate bill would block federal money to Planned Parenthood.

Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson is calling the GOP Senate bill a bad bill. Republican Senator Marco Rubio is not pledging his support yet until he finds out how it will impact Florida.

At the he latest vote count, four Republican senators say they can not vote for the bill as it currently stands. The GOP can afford to lose no more than three Republican votes, or else the bill would face certain defeat.

Republican Senate leadership wants a vote on the bill before July 4.

To read the bill in its entirety, click here.