Health care or corporate tax breaks?
President Trump and Congressional Republicans have renewed their push to repeal (and not really replace) the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They just won’t give up trying to trade access to affordable health care for tax breaks for corporate CEOs.
This month Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy unveiled another health care repeal bill, arguably the worst one yet—and they seem to be short of the votes needed to pass it.
The bill attempts to:
- Eliminate the cost-sharing subsidies and tax credits that help the middle class pay for health care on the ACA marketplace;
- Eliminate the ban on discriminatory premiums for people with pre-existing medical conditions;
- Allow states to apply for waivers on price restrictions to let insurance companies charge older Americans higher premiums based on age;
- Allow states to apply for waivers to change what qualifies as an essential health benefit to eliminate the out of pocket spending cap individuals pay for services like maternity care, hospitalization, prescription drugs and mental health care; and
- Cut Medical funding for seniors, people with disabilities and families with children.
The Graham-Cassidy bill would cut federal funding to Illinois by $8 billion, putting even greater pressure on our state’s already stressed fiscal health. It means that the competition among all those who depend on state services (and state employment) would be greatly intensified in the face of shrinking revenues.
The AARP, the AMA, and dozens of other medical and advocacy organizations are opposing this legislation. Overall this bill would do great harm to patients, hospitals, and health care systems in Illinois and hurt the state budget and economy.
And Congressional Republicans are rushing to vote on the bill before they even know fully what the bill will do and in spite of warnings that it could take health care away from as many as 32 million people.
Senate Republicans are rushing to pass the bill by September 30 when a lower vote threshold ends.
Although Senator McCain of Arizona and key vote Senator Susan Collins of Maine have both announced that they will not support the bill, the GOP isn’t letting up. Extreme pressure is being put on Republican lawmakers who have not yet committed to supporting the bill but it appears this could finally be the end of the years-long effort to dismantle the health law.