The money allocated in the House Republican bill to repeal Obamacare for states to help those with pre-existing conditions pay for health insurance would not provide sufficient funds for that purpose, according to a new report published Thursday by the health consulting firm Avalere.
The American Health Care Act would give states $23 billion to help cover residents with pre-existing conditions: $15 billion through an amendment that calls on states to set up high-risk pools, plus another $8 billion over five years through the most recent amendment to the repeal legislation proposed by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). According to Avalere’s calculations, this amount would help cover just 110,000 people with pre-existing conditions each year, a fraction of the 2.2 million people with pre-existing conditions currently enrolled in the individual marketplace.
States would theoretically be able to spend more money from the AHCA’s Patient and State Stability Fund on people with pre-existing conditions. But even if states spent the entire $123 billion allocation for that purpose, just 600,000 individuals with pre-existing conditions would be covered each year, the report found.
An amendment to the AHCA offered by Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) and backed by the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus would allow states to apply for waivers from certain Obamacare mandates. States that secure waivers could allow insurers to engage in medical underwriting and increase a person’s premium based on their health status. States granted waivers also would have to set up high-risk pools, which are very expensive.
According to Avalere’s analysis, if a significant number of states allow underwriting, the money allocated to help people with pre-existing conditions afford bigger premiums would not be sufficient.
“Given the amount of funding in the bill, the program can only afford a few small states to opt into medical underwriting,” Caroline Pearson, a senior vice president at Avalere, said in a statement. “If any large states receive a waiver, many chronically ill individuals could be left without access to insurance.”
These people are inured and averse to facts and statistics. They know what they know and they are oblivious to what they don’t know, but should. Knowing some things would take away ‘false options’ and a priori decisions. Facts are an inhibitory annoyance.
This is off topic but apropos. Beijing is experiencing another humungous dust storm, which coupled with their smog, has created intolerable conditions for breathing. The dust is from Mongolia and Western China owing to rapid desertification due to direct human impacts and Global Warming, which IS a fact. A fact that the GOP refuses to acknowledge, just like the ACA IS the minimum tool for providing widespread health care. There is no cheaper and more efficient alternative that preserves our unique, employer based private insurance system.
Dust storm chokes Beijing and northern China
But it’s not that these miscreants can’t connect the dots. They flat out refuse to connect them; they flat-out refuse to admit that there are even dots! And so, as in Global Climate Change, we are being dragged into a slough of intractable despond by these ‘conservative’ miscreants as the MSM cheers them on. Today’s CNN headline:
I have no solution that doesn’t involve utterly, totally removing the GOP permanently from power.
GOP will own Trumpcareless. It’s hard to feel concern for people who vote against their self interest. So be it. Frump, release your taxes. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/immediately-release-donald-trumps-full-tax-returns-all-information-needed-verify-emoluments-clause-compliance
“If any large states receive a waiver, many chronically ill individuals could be left without access to insurance.”
…as intended.
Who knew stealing trillions of dollars from health care and giving the wealthiest among us trillions in tax breaks would cause health care to lose out?
If your goal is to provide affordable and good health care then you are simply Not a republican. Period.
Think it through.
The sicker you are, the more you’d have to pay. The sicker you are, the less likely you are to be able to work.
This proposal constitutes the pillaging of everyone’s retirement accounts. Because we’re all going to die — get very sick.
Your life’s work? Your savings? Just a big fat fund government politicians want to steal.