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March 3, 2017 | NOrTHWEST LABOr PrESS
NORTHWEST
What’s happening to your health care?
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Paula
— THrEE THINGS TO kNOW rIGHT NOW —
By Shaun O'Brien
AFL-CIO NOW
Right now there’s lots of talk
about how President Donald
Trump and Congress are plan-
ning to make major changes to
Americans’ health benefits.
That’s because Trump and Re-
publican leaders in Congress
have said that repealing the Af-
fordable Care Act is one of their
top priorities. Although it is not
clear when they will act or ex-
actly what they will do, here are
three things to know right now:
1)
Your health benefits are at
risk, no matter where you
get them
■ Medicare: A straight-up repeal of the ACA
would eliminate some Medicare benefits by
reinstating the full Medicare prescription
drug donut hole and taking away free
preventive care. House Speaker Paul Ryan
(R-Wis.) has pushed to turn Medicare into a
voucher system, meaning benefits would
no longer be guaranteed and health costs
for seniors and people with disabilities
would go up dramatically.
■ Workplace Health Benefits: Kevin
Brady (R-Texas), the powerful chairman of
the tax writing committee in the U.S. House
of Representatives, wants to tax part of the
cost of workplace health benefits by
including the cost in working people’s
taxable income. So does the person Trump
hired to be in charge of health care, Health
and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. If
you get your health benefits on the job, this
will raise your taxes and lead to even higher
deductibles and co-pays. Some employers
could even cancel their health plans in
response.
■ Health Insurance You Buy Yourself:
Most media coverage is focused on what
impact repeal of the ACA will have on the
approximately 10 million people who now
buy individual health coverage through the
ACA’s health insurance marketplaces, often
with the help of federal tax credits. A
straight-up repeal of the ACA would not just
take away the tax credits that help people
buy health insurance. Full repeal also would
eliminate the ACA’s protections that require
insurance companies to treat people fairly,
to give them meaningful insurance without
tricks and traps, and not to discriminate
against anyone because they have a pre-
existing condition or even because of their
gender.
■ Medicaid: Medicaid is the health plan run
by states, with significant federal funding,
that enables 74 million people to get the
medical care they need. One-in-three kids
in the United States get their health
coverage from Medicaid or the Children’s
Health Insurance Plan. Millions of seniors
and people of all ages with disabilities also
count on Medicaid for nursing home care
and the long-term supports and services
that allow them to live independently in
their homes and communities. A straight-
up repeal of the ACA would take health
coverage away from 11 million people who
now have benefits because the ACA
allowed states to expand Medicaid. Trump
and Republican leaders in Congress also
want to cut Medicaid for everyone who
receives it by imposing new limited caps on
what the federal government will
contribute, even if the cost of health care
keeps going up much faster than prices in
the rest of the economy. That will shift costs
onto states and likely force cuts in benefits.
2)
People are speaking up, and
that’s having an impact on
Washington
Lots of people are showing up to
meet with their members of Con-
gress about health care and to let
them know just how important it
is to them personally. Many peo-
ple are asking their members of
Congress tough questions. For
example, a Tennessee high
school teacher attended a town
hall and had tough questions for
Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) Her
powerful, Christian defense of
Obamacare made a GOP town
hall go viral on the Internet. The
hard questions and strong show
of concern from voters are affect-
ing what’s going on in Congress.
What once was a mad dash to re-
peal the ACA right away has
slowed to a crawl for the mo-
ment, and there now is a split
among Republicans in Congress.
While many congressional Re-
publicans still want to repeal the
ACA immediately regardless of
whether they have a replacement,
at least a few are saying they
want to figure out what the im-
pact will be on real people and
how they might address the harm
that will do.
3)
We’re still waiting to hear
the plan for repealing and
replacing the ACA
In mid-January, Trump said he
had a plan that was finished ex-
cept for some finishing touches,
and that he was just waiting for
Price to be confirmed by the Sen-
ate as his HHS secretary. Price
was confirmed on Feb. 10, but
two weeks later, no plan had
been released. Congressional Re-
publicans are still trying to figure
out what their plan should be.
Some Republicans want to go
ahead with repeal of the ACA
now and figure out whether and
how they might replace it later.