American Health Care Act (AHCA) Bill Moves Through the House

Breaking News:

Top Republican lawmakers have announced a slew of amendments to the Republican healthcare plan ahead of the House vote Thursday. Many of the amendments were pushed by conservatives within the Republican Party. One amendment seeks to halt immediately the Medicaid expansion program. Another would allow states to make it harder for people to receive Medicaid by imposing requirements that able-bodied people have a job or participate in job training programs. A third amendment would allow states to choose to receive less federal funding for Medicaid. (News from Democracy Now)

Negative Impacts on Medicaid:

Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the proposed American Health Care Act estimating that 24 million Americans would lose health care coverage by 2026. This bill would make draconian changes to Medicaid and cut the program’s funding by $880 billion over 10 years. The bill would use money saved from Medicaid to cut taxes of the wealthy by an estimated $592 billion and would drastically affect the Medicaid expansion. Here are just some of the other ways in which the AHCA would harm Medicaid:

• Reduced federal funding would pass health care costs and risk on to states, forcing them to cut coverage and eliminate health care services.
• Medicaid closes racial gaps in access to care. Cuts would leave many African Americans and Latinx without coverage.
• Women enrolled in Medicaid would not be able to access care from Planned Parenthood for one year.
• Immigrants would not qualify for coverage until after their documentation is verified, even if the individual meets all other Medicaid eligibility requirements and attests to his or her citizenship status.

AHCA Insurance Subsidy Changes Would Harm Older Adults and Low-Income Individuals

• Insurers would be able to charge older adults premiums that are five times as high as those that are charged to younger people.
• The ACA held the ratio at 3:1.
• Tax credits would no longer be based on income, leading to greater premium increases for lower income households.
• Individuals would be charged 30% more for coverage if they go uninsured for more than a month, which is more prevalent among people with limited income