The Affordable Care Act repeal bill cuts $880 billion from those most in need.
Georgeanne M. Usova, Washington Legislative Office & Vania Leveille, Senior Legislative Counsel
Last week, House leadership rushed its Obamacare repeal bill through two committees less than 48 hours after it became public, despite calls from Republicans and Democrats to slow the process down.
Now we know why they were in such a rush.
On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its official analysis of the American Health Care Act (ACHA). The bottom line? Twenty-four million people will lose insurance coverage by 2026. And $880 billion of federal Medicaid funding will disappear over 10 years.
This bears repeating: 24 million people and $880 billion gone from those most in need.
Why, you ask, is it this bad? First, the bill attacks people's ability to purchase private insurance. It eliminates the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) subsides that allow individuals and families to afford health plans in the ACA's marketplaces, replacing them with tax credits that favor the wealthy.
Second, it guts Medicaid to the tune of $880 billion over the next decade. It starts by phasing out the Medicaid expansion, which allowed millions of low-income people who previously couldn't qualify for Medicaid to access basic preventive care and allowed individuals with disabilities to work without losing their health benefits. But most significantly, it would permanently restructure the Medicaid program and epend the current state-federal partnership by implementing per capita caps — meaning that states would only receive up to a fixed amount of federal funding per beneficiary. The result would be dramatic decrease in federal investments that will impact Medicaid patients as well as health care providers.
