217-213
After about an of debate, House Republican leadership Thursday afternoon put the American Health Care Act up for a vote before member could leave town on an 11-day vacation. It passed by a vote 217-213 mostly along party lines.
The AHCA, according to Republicans, repeals and replaces ObamaCare. In reality it does not “replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but is a multi-billion dollar tax cut for the wealthiest of Americans. It strips health care coverage for at least an estimated 24 million Americans in its first year. The number of Americans who will lose care rises to over 50 million by 2020, according to estimates of the previous draft. Republicans forced the bill through without allowing the Congressional Budget Office to score the legislation.Â
The bill, should the Senate pass it, will be signed by President Trump.
It will place Americans with any pre-existing condition (this could easily be you, one in two Americans have a pre-existing condition) in high-risk pools that will be grossly underfunded, costing them thousands of dollars more for the coverage they have right now, every year.
Americans with asthma, for example, will pay about $4000 a year more. Diabetes, $5500. Pregnant women: $17,000. The list goes on. Additionally, it removes the lifetime cap on health care insurance out of pocket expenses. It also allows employers to elect to remove that cap to save costs.
“The new law would cut Medicaid by $880 billion, or 25 percent, over 10 years and impose a ‘per-capita cap’ on funding for certain groups of people, such as children and the elderly — a dramatic change that would convert Medicaid from an entitlement designed to cover any costs incurred to a more limited program,” The New York Times reports.
Seniors will find themselves paying thousands more than they do now for the same coverage.
The bill is opposed by nearly every major medical group, including the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, American Lung Association, and the AARP.
The Senate will have to take up the bill next.
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