FILE - In this Friday, April 21, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump listens as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin speaks at the Treasury Department in Washington. Trump won the White House by arguing that what America needed was a president who had proved himself as a steely and successful corporate leader with no political baggage, someone, say, like himself. Yet 100 days into Trump’s presidency, the businessman-as-president has struggled to apply his experience as a real estate and entertainment mogul to the Herculean task of governing the world’s most powerful nation. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - In this Friday, April 21, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump listens as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin speaks at the Treasury Department in Washington. Trump won the White House by arguing that what America needed was a president who had proved himself as a steely and successful corporate leader with no political baggage, someone, say, like himself. Yet 100 days into Trump’s presidency, the businessman-as-president has struggled to apply his experience as a real estate and entertainment mogul to the Herculean task of governing the world’s most powerful nation. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) Credit: Alex Brandon

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office confirmed the devastating effects that Trumpcare would have on the American people. According to the CBO, 23 million people can expect to lose their health insurance under this plan. Twenty-three million.

We are lucky to have an all-Democratic, all-female congressional delegation down in Washington fighting for us against this horrible bill. Unfortunately, our Republican governor, Chris Sununu, has been on the wrong side of this fight, backing President Donald Trump’s destructive bill.

This bill, which would force 23 million people to pay for health care costs entirely out of pocket, is a “great message,” according to Sununu. He called a bill that denies affordable insurance for those with pre-existing conditions “a huge win.” He said of a bill that hikes premiums 850 percent for older working Americans that it “moves the ball forward.”

How is this a huge win, Gov. Sununu? How is this bill moving forward not a betrayal of American values?

Our government is proposing a measure that would actively hurt millions of Americans. These 23 million people all deserve access to affordable health insurance. But they will now be denied coverage for maternity care, cancer treatments, broken bones or emergency room visits with insurance.

With this bill, the Republicans in Congress, President Trump and Gov. Sununu have all signaled that the people affected by Trumpcare don’t matter as much as cutting taxes for the wealthy.

Since 2010, our health care system has improved. We now have the lowest uninsured rate in our country’s history and have begun slowing the rate of premium increase. But now, Republicans are trying to force us back into a world where millions of people must choose between their health and their wallet.

We know the Affordable Care Act is not perfect, but America is looking for Congress to work together to make that system better. We can’t afford leaders who see a bill poised to take insurance away from 23 million people and call it a “huge win.”

(Larry Drake, a retired federal employee living in Portsmouth, is chairman of the Rockingham County Democratic Committee.)