The United States’ largest advocacy group for doctors on Wednesday said the latest iteration of Republicans’ bill to repeal and replace Obamacare would eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions and result in millions of people losing their coverage.
Andrew W. Gurman, the president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement that the bill would cause “serious harm to patients and the health care delivery system.”
“Not only would the AHCA eliminate health insurance coverage for millions of Americans, the legislation would, in many cases, eliminate the ban against charging those with underlying medical conditions vastly more for their coverage,” Gurman said.
He said proposed amendments to the legislation “tinker at the edges without remedying the fundamental failing of the bill – that millions of Americans will lose their health insurance as a direct result of this proposal.”
“America should not go backward to the time when our fellow citizens with pre-existing health conditions faced high costs for limited coverage, if they were able to obtain coverage at all,” Gurman said.
The American Medical Association came out against the repeal bill in its original iteration in March. Republican leaders pulled that version of the bill after they failed to corral enough votes to ensure its passage through the House, and have since been trying to whip enough votes to pass the legislation in a revised form.
