U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet roundly criticized health care legislation released Thursday by Senate Republicans, saying the bill would slash coverage and increase costs for Americans while cutting taxes for the extremely rich.

Calling the bill “just as bad, if not worse” than a bill passed by the House at the beginning of May, the Colorado Democrat urged GOP leaders to “start over” and work in public to deliver bipartisan health care legislation.

“What it really is is a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans masquerading as a health bill,” Bennet said in a video statement, “and, like the House bill, it’s going to throw millions and millions of people off their insurance.”

Some GOP senators – including Colorado’s Cory Gardner, who was part of a select, 13-member working group that was supposed to be drafting the legislation – said they planned to read the bill before rendering judgment on its particulars. But four prominent conservatives withheld their support, saying the bill fell short of fully repealing the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

Holding a 52-48 edge, Senate Republicans can only afford to lose the support of two members, with Vice President Mike Pence able to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Repeating an argument he’s been making all month in town halls, in tweets and in Senate press conferences, Bennet said in a separate, written statement, “You couldn’t design a bill less responsive to what the opponents of Obamacare have said they want than the bill that recently passed the House of Representatives.”

Then he said the Senate bill, drafted for weeks behind closed doors, could be even worse than the House bill “because it decreases coverage and increases costs instead of expanding quality and affordable health care.”

Invoking President Donald Trump, who said he was “very supportive” of the Senate bill in a tweet on Thursday afternoon, Bennet said Republicans were falling short of the president’s promise on the campaign trail and since taking office. And that, the senator said,  “was that we were going to have better insurance – more predictable, more affordable – and that everyone in America was going to think it was great.”

Trump has been delivering mixed messages on health care legislation as it’s made its way through Congress, first celebrating the House bill’s passage and later reportedly calling it “mean” in a closed-door meeting with Republican senators, something Bennet mentioned on Thursday.

The Senate draft, Bennet said, is “just as, quote, mean as the last bill that the House put forward. That’s the president’s description of the bill, not mine.”

Bennet called on Republicans to go back to the drawing board on the 142-page Senate bill.

“Coloradans deserve a full debate and an open process when it comes to reforming something that affects one-sixth of our economy,” he said. “Instead of writing a bill in secret and rushing to pass it before an arbitrary deadline, we should work in a bipartisan and transparent way to provide more predictability, affordability and transparency to give Coloradans the health care system they deserve.”

Watch Bennet’s video statement below, courtesy KUNC News: