ACA a Proven Life Saver – Coconino County Democratic Party

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There’s good news about improvements in our health care system, thanks to the Affordable Care Act (click on the links for source info):

o We’re diagnosing cancer earlier, meaning more lives will be saved.

o Low-income patients have increased access to better and more affordable health insurance.

o Medicaid expansion states have seen plummeting rates of uninsured residents as far more people gain access to insurance.

But despite this good news – and despite the evident harm repealing it would cause – the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans continue to attack the Affordable Care Act:

o According to LA Times reporting, the Trump Administration is intentionally undermining the ACA, which has resulted in rate hikes.

o The GOP’s Trumpcare bill could drive up premiums for 6 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

o The White House and the GOP efforts to sabotage the ACA are destabilizing insurance markets, causing the cost of insurance to increase.

o Trumpcare would result in cuts to Medicaid funding for children.

And, here’s the status of what Republicans are trying to do, according to Congressman Tom O’Halleran:

On March 24, 2017, the ACHA (Trumpcare) was withdrawn from the floor of the House of Representatives after receiving no public hearings in the committees of jurisdiction. The Congressional Budget Office analysis of this legislation estimated nearly 24 million Americans could lose health coverage, and insurance premiums would increase by 15 to 20 percent. On May 4, 2017, a revised AHCA, including new amendments, passed the House of Representatives without an updated CBO score.

We cannot continue to play politics with the health and well-being of the American people. We must put aside blind partisan ideology and work on bipartisan legislation that invests in rural health care, brings down costs for seniors and veterans, and protects those with pre-existing conditions from losing coverage.

As a result of AHCA, Arizonans with pre-existing conditions could lose coverage, the Medicare Trust Fund would be shortened, and our rural hospitals will be put in further jeopardy as uncompensated care increases. Further, nothing has been done to stem the skyrocketing premiums our seniors will face or protect veteran care.