LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Friday, the members of Congress who represent Lake County as well as state legislators and officials had harsh words for the action by Republican lawmakers to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The American Health Care Act, or AHCA, repeals key provisions of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA.
It passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 217-213, with no Democrats voting for the bill. Republicans had only one vote to spare in passing the bill before breaking for an 11-day recess.
The AARP, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and numerous other patient advocacy groups have opposed the AHCA.
Earlier this week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that health care costs across California’s Fifth Congressional District would rise by an average of over $4,000 per year by 2020 for Covered California enrollees if the AHCA passed.
The AHCA also is expected to take $75 billion from Medicare; cut funding for Planned Parenthood and prohibit people from using their tax credits for plans that cover reproductive health, which means that plans in California would not be eligible for a tax credit; and raise the average annual premium for a 60-year-old to $17,500 per year.
The two Democrats who represent Lake County in the House of Representatives, Congressman John Garamendi (CA-03) and Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-05), both voted against the bill, which they strongly condemned.
Thompson said the bill previously was introduced in March, when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost 24 million Americans their health coverage.
Since then, Thompson said Republicans added provisions to let insurers price people with pre-existing conditions out of the marketplace and allow states to bring back lifetime limits on care and gut essential health benefits like hospital stays, ambulance services, and prescription drug coverage.
Republicans did not wait for the Congressional Budget Office to score the amended bill before rushing it to the floor, Thompson said.
“This was a terrible bill in March, and it is a worse bill today,” said Thompson. “We already knew it would leave millions of Americans out in the cold and cause health care costs to skyrocket. Now, Republicans want to break their promise to protect people with pre-existing conditions by allowing insurers to price them out of coverage. That’s not protection, it’s extortion. Americans deserve better.”
He added, “I’ve spoken with thousands of my constituents who overwhelming oppose this bill. Republicans ought to listen to the people they serve, not a President who wants to make good on a campaign slogan despite what it will cost hardworking men and women across the country.”
Garamendi called the bill “atrocious.”
“It is cruel. I simply cannot believe that something this bad could pass the House of Representatives, but it has,” he said.
Garamendi said that, in addition to stripping health insurance from millions of people, it is a “crushing age tax for Americans of 50 to 64 years of age, and will force them to pay up to five times as much as what a 30-year-old would pay for the same coverage.”
He said it also will destabilize funding for Medicare, taking $75 billion out of the trust fund, and blow a $10 billion annual hole in Medi-Cal.
“It will practically eliminate the guarantee of coverage for pre-existing conditions, which could affect over 300,000 people in my district. But it will provide a massive, $600 billion tax cut to America’s richest,” said Garamendi.
He added, “It is an outright assault on the poor and the sick, and a huge transfer of wealth to the rich.
“I served for eight years as the Insurance Commissioner of California,” he said. “I know exactly what insurance companies will do under policies that gives them free rein, and that’s what this bill does. The amendments that were put on this bill at the last second do nothing to reduce the devastation it will impose on America’s most vulnerable. It is a sad day in Congress.”
State Sen. Mike McGuire called the “Trumpcare” bill “downright dangerous. He said 3.2 million Californians are dependent on the Affordable Care Act for their health care coverage and Friday’s vote will drop millions from their health care, increase costs for millions more and cost the state of California billions.
California has one of the most successful statewide Affordable Care Act programs in the nation. The ACA has dropped California’s uninsured rate from approximately 17 percent to 7.2 percent, an all-time low in the Golden State’s uninsured rate, McGuire’s office reported.
In addition, according to Consumer Reports, personal bankruptcy filings due to unpaid medical bills have been slashed in half since the ACA’s passage.
“Our national health care system is under attack, and the time has come for California to advance the critical conversation about implementation of single payer health care,” Senator McGuire said.
McGuire is a co-author of SB 562 – The Healthy California Act – which would create a single payer health care system in California.
Other state officials weighing in on the AHCA’s passage included Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, who said taking away people’s health care “is tantamount to a death sentence for some patients who depend on coverage to manage serious and chronic medical conditions.”
He added, “The president and House Republicans have nothing to be proud of today as they work to take health care coverage away from millions of Americans who will be harmed by their actions.”
In addition to permitting the sale of insurance policies that do not cover many essential health benefits, Jones said the AHCA also weakens existing prohibitions against annual and lifetime limits, which protect Americans from catastrophic medical costs.
“This bill would permit charging sick people prohibitively high premiums, depriving people of the ability to buy coverage. High-risk pools have failed patients in the past and this bill does not provide sufficient funding to make them work,” Jones said.
California Treasurer John Chiang said that in less than 24 hours, Congress had left 7.5 million Californians “careening toward an impoverished retirement” and four million Californians at risk of losing their health care.
“While President Trump and Congressional Republicans style themselves as populist champions of everyday Americans, they have just cast votes to make us poorer, sicker and less secure,” Chiang said.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra promised to fight to protect health care, noting that he believes health care is a right.
"As a member of Congress, I was proud to help expand health coverage and lower costs for hardworking Americans. Every member of Congress who voted for today's bill must answer why it is good to take away an American's access to his or her doctor. Would they do this to themselves or their family?” Becerra said.
"As California's attorney general, I will use every legal tool at my disposal to safeguard the health care the people of our state depend on,” Becerra said.
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