Trumpcare Bad For All But The Rich

American Health Care Act

• This American Health Care Act (AHCA) decimates Medicaid, with more than $800 billion in cuts.
  
• Donald Trump’s 2018 fiscal year budget attempts to add another $600 billion in Medicaid cuts to that figure, for a total of $1.4 trillion.
  
• It is difficult to say what the cruelest aspect of this vote is, but raiding Medicare and cutting Medicaid surely are at the top of the list.
  
• Even President Trump acknowledges that the AHCA is “mean.”
  
• President Trump could fix this by going back to his campaign promises not to cut Medicare and Medicaid.
  
• The AHCA drops the coverage guarantee for people with pre-existing conditions, strips coverage from millions and drives up costs for millions more.
  
• The House bill takes away health insurance coverage away from 23 million Americans, and the Senate is using it as their starting point.
  
• The numbers are especially troubling for anyone with a pre-existing condition. Premium increases are going to be massive for this group, which includes millions of older Americans.
  
• Among people ages 55 to 64, 84 percent had at least one pre-existing condition in 2014.
  
• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score confirms older Americans’ worst fears: the American Health Care Act is a disaster for older Americans who are not yet eligible for Medicare.
  
• The scenario isn’t much better for those who qualify for Medicare, since the AHCA robs the Medicare Trust Fund to pay for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.
  
• The transfer of wealth from the sick to the wealthy is unconscionable.
  
• We know why the House leadership was in such a hurry to pass this dreadful legislation without a single hearing, and why the Senate negotiations are being done in private: it is both dangerous and unfair.
  
• The CBO confirms some states will drop the coverage guarantee for people with pre-existing conditions. This will make health insurance a privilege for the wealthy, not a right.
  
• This legislation will destabilize the health care markets.
  
• Members of the Alliance for Retired Americans are mobilized and ready to fight tooth and nail against the AHCA in the Senate.

Source: Alliance for Retired Americans

June 14, 2017