Rep. Gus Bilirakis, Trump, And House GOP Celebrate Throwing Millions Off Health Insurance
The verdict is in for the Republican's tax cut for the rich American Health Care Act, or TrumpCare, that would destroy the Affordable Care Act and (surprise!) it's a death sentence for millions.
As you'll recall, Republicans in the House didn't want to wait until their health care bill was scored by the Congressional Budget Office to vote on it because they knew the results would be devastating, and on this they were correct. And then some. But vote they did, and it passed. Now the CBO has weighed in and the death panels Republicans warned us about are now real and Republicans are the ones sitting on them.
In sum:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its score showing that the bill would eliminate coverage for 14 million Americans next year and for 23 million by 2026. The CBO projects that the bill would destabilize insurance markets; slash Medicaid funding by $834 billion over the next decade; make individual coverage exceedingly expensive for older Americans and people with pre-existing conditions; and increase average premiums by 20 percent next year.
The bill also included an Amendment that would allow states to waive protections for pre-existing conditions and coverage for basic health benefits. Given that Florida refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA and Republicans here sought to undermine the ACA, there's an underlying assumption by many that Republicans would waive these protections as well, meaning that the AHCA would be extremely costly and deadly to Floridans. Now the CBO has released coverage losses by state, and the numbers for Florida are bad.
(Attribution: Center For American Progress)
Millions would lose their coverage, protections for pre-existing conditions and coverage for basic health care essentials would be gone, and people would be paying more for less coverage. In other words, the Republicans have removed "health insurance" from the concept of health insurance. Worse, their plan would make things worse than they were before the ACA was passed.
When Florida Republicans told their constituents they wouldn't be losing all of the above, they weren't being honest. And now they're coming home for recess.
This week would be a great time to ask them what they plan to do about it.
