On Friday, the Senate voted to pass devastating health care cuts that target working and middle-class Coloradans – but this time, it was hidden in the Republican tax plan.

This bill that affects our entire economy was voted on without public hearings, with no public text of the bill, without updated economic and budget scores, and before Senators even had a chance to read the bill. Republicans conveniently chose to ignore their often-proclaimed fiscal principles, burdening future generations by adding more than $1 trillion to the deficit. And, yes, that even accounts for any meager economic growth this plan might produce.

The question is how our country will pay for this deficit increase, because we will have to pay for it. We know from the Republican budget that they want to pay for it by cutting Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion and Medicare by over $400 billion. That doesn’t include the immediate $25 billion sequestration cut to Medicare that will start next year from this bill.

These are the hidden costs of this tax heist that Republicans are concealing from their constituents.

This bill also repeals the penalty for those who don’t buy in and get health insurance. The individual responsibility provision, if allowed to work, stabilizes the individual insurance market, helps preserve affordability, and diversified insurance risk pools. Without requiring individuals to have healthcare coverage, the sick, injured, ailing and elderly will buy into increasingly expensive insurance plans while the healthy can game the system and opt out. For all of us, it’s just a matter of time before we move from being the “healthy” to needing health insurance.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates this sneaky repeal will leave 13 million Americans without health insurance, including around 235,000 Coloradans, and people in the individual market will face 10 percent higher premiums than they would have otherwise.

At its core, this bill takes health coverage from working families to give tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent and multinational corporations. This desperate crusade for their tax heist will hurt the middle class, ripping health coverage from working families, children, people with disabilities and seniors. That’s not tax reform, that’s a tax scam.

Coloradans have resoundingly rejected health care cuts multiple times this year, yet some of our elected officials have opted to ignore their own constituents. It’s clear Colorado’s Republicans in Congress think they can slip health care devastation past their constituents to appease wealthy donors.

But, it’s not too late for our Republican representatives and Colorado Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner to undo the damage of their original votes for this tax heist. This bill has to go through a conference committee to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate versions and will be voted on again.

Again, we have a massive bill negotiated in secret and rammed through a shockingly undemocratic process that dismantles part of the ACA, increases premiums, destabilizes the market and leaves more people uninsured. Again, this bill will lead to slashing Medicaid and Medicare, and hamstring our state budget.

And again, it should fail.

All Coloradans should tell Sen. Gardner and our Republican Representatives to reconsider carefully their votes and join our Democratic members of Congress in opposing this tax heist that ravages health care programs in order to give massive tax breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent. Place people over party and money, and work on a bipartisan approach that truly invests in the middle-class and does not lead to future spending cuts by increasing deficits.