AARP Idaho says the American Health Care Act raises questions about nursing-home coverage for seniors provided through Medicaid.
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Deal said he doesn’t regret refusing Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
Throughout my time representing the people of Central Washington in the U.S. Congress, constituents from across the 4th District have shared with me their deeply personal stories about the struggles and hardships they’ve faced under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare.
“Those rural areas saw a lot of the greatest gains in insurance due to Medicaid”, said CHI’s Emily Johnson. Here’s the rub – the insurance middleman and the cost.
A report by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 14 million people nationwide would lose coverage under the Republican bill next year, and 24 million by 2026.
Price said it was wonderful the man had received the care he had, but “that’s not necessarily true for everybody”. Additionally, the GOP bill will severely hurt the 70 million Americans who rely on Medicaid, including seniors. That’s the basic concept of insurance – when everybody “pools” together, the costs are spread across everyone. When Bash doubled down, Price argued it was just undoing a provision in Obamacare that unfairly targeted health care executives.
While eliminating the mandate may be good politics in the short term, it’s myopic public policy.
We either want health care insurance for everyone, or we don’t.
Stephanie Hogenson, research and policy director for the Children’s Defense Fund, says the GOP’s proposal to replace the ACA threatens all of the gains made, especially the cuts proposed for Medicaid.
I have terrific health insurance provided by my union.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One Wednesday night, Trump said he expected to get a health care bill through, adding: “It’s going to get all mixed up and we’re going to come up with something”. This would put efficient, direct-pay providers at a competitive disadvantage versus insurance-based practices whose inefficient models appear competitive only because they are subsidized by taxpayer-supplemented health insurance. Tax credits don’t help them one bit. “We have a moral responsibility to care for the least of these”. Don’t be distracted by arguments that you should be able to choose which medical procedures will be covered a la carte.
One big reason for that is that the new health care bill would change the gap between what young and old people will pay for their premiums. Or the grandparents on Social Security raising two grandkids who also don’t have to pay income tax; how do tax credits help them pay the cash needed for insurance premiums?
But if passage of their Obamacare-replacement plan would expose Republicans to political peril, failure to pass it would be as bad, maybe worse. The health care bill now being drafted by the House, and enthusiastically endorsed by the president, makes major cuts in Medicaid, the joint federal/state program that protects the most vulnerable Americans.
The uninsurance rate will increase among the poor and nonpoor alike.
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The PBPC report notes that this figure is likely low, as the study was for a single year and couldn’t take into account the effect of not having health insurance over many years. The Republican plan would up that from 3-to-1 to 5-to-1. “If they don’t get coverage, they end up the emergency room, they end up sicker, more expensive”, he told state business leaders. My member of Congress even posted a video with the ironic title of “Let’s talk about health care”. Once a health plan’s premium cost exceeds that 90th percentile, premium value in excess of that threshold would have been treated as taxable income to the employee and subject to payroll taxes payable by both the employee and the employer.
