House Obamacare bill won’t fix healthcare system, doctors say
Physician groups are sharply criticizing Thursday’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the American Health Care Act (AHCA), saying the bill would reduce or eliminate healthcare coverage for millions of Americans.
Physician groups are sharply criticizing Thursday’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the
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The bill, which House leadership sees as fulfilling its pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare, was approved by a vote of 217 to 213. No Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. It now goes to the U.S. Senate, where most policy analysts believe it will be substantially revised.
The House bill would make sweeping changes to the healthcare marketplace created by Obamacare. Among these are:
· Allowing states to opt out of the Obamacare requirement that insurers cover “essential health benefits” such as hospitalization, pregnancy and maternity care and prescription drugs.
· Allowing states to opt out of Obamacare’s community rating requirement that insurers charge the same rates to all individuals in a given region, regardless of their health status. In states choosing to do this, insurers could charge a person more if he or she had gone more than two consecutive months without healthcare insurance.
· Ending the financial penalty for individuals who choose to go without health insurance
· Ending the expansion of Medicaid benefits included in Obamacare. States allowing the expansion received federal money to cover more of their residents. The AHCA would freeze enrollments under the new rules as of Jan. 1, 2020.
· Using age, rather than income, to determine the amount of tax credits provided to people buying healthcare insurance on the state or federal exchanges
In addition, the bill would repeal two tax hikes imposed on upper-income individuals and families under Obamacare and used to help pay for some of the legislation’s benefits-one on investment income, and one on Medicare taxes. It would also allocate $123 billion for states to use in establishing high-risk pools to cover people with pre-existing conditions.
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