Senate Republicans have unveiled their version of the House bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. As usual, Vox’s Sarah Kilff has broken things down very nicely:
The bill asks low- and middle-income Americans to spend significantly more for less coverage.
The bill would roll back the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of the Medicaid program, which currently covers millions of low-income Americans, and include additional cuts to Medicaid. It would rework the individual market so that enrollees get less financial help to purchase less generous health insurance with higher deductibles.
Here are some “highlights” of this bill:
- It defunds Planned Parenthood for one year.
- The most wealthy Americans will see a large tax cut.
- Medicaid expansion ends in 2021, keeping millions of low-income Americans from receiving funds.
- If you purchase a health insurance plan with high deductible, your tax credit will be smaller under the new law.
- States will be able opt out of Obamacare’s marketplaces entirely.
- The individual mandate is gone, which will lead to an increase in prices and healthy people who don’t want insurance will exit the market.
Here’s Kliff again:
The replacement plan would make several changes to what health insurers can charge enrollees who purchase insurance on the individual market, as well as changing what benefits their plans must cover. In aggregate, these changes could be advantageous to younger and healthier enrollees who want skimpier (and cheaper) benefit packages. But they could be costly for older and sicker Obamacare enrollees who rely on the law’s current requirements, and would be asked to pay more for less generous coverage.
The Senate’s version makes little changes in terms preexisting coverage. The House’s bill gutted those protections, putting the future of families like mine in serious jeopardy.
However, it’s not all good news there. The Senate versions removes lifetime caps, meaning a cancer patient could be cut-off by their insurance company in the middle of their chemotherapy, or the day before an important MRI.
Back to Vox:
The Senate bill still requires insurance companies to accept all patients, regardless of how sick they might be or what preexisting conditions they have. Building a health insurance system without an individual mandate or any replacement policy runs a significant risk of falling into a death spiral, where only the sickest people buy coverage and premiums keep ticking upward.
Both the House and Senate versions of this new healthcare bill — penned entirely by Republicans with no input from Democrats — will cause harm to the sick and poor of our nation while lining the pockets of the wealthiest Americans. Those in Congress responsible should be ashamed of themselves.