Here are a few lowlights of the AHCA Congressional Budget Office score. I’ll try to keep this non-technical.
- Medicaid is still getting changed from an entitlement that is responsive to changing needs to a block grant
- 23 million people will lose coverage compared to current law projections
- The MacArthur/Upton waivers are expected to destroy the individual markets that cover 15% of the country
- Most of the premium decreases are due to older and sicker people being priced out of the market
- Real easy to have low premiums when you don’t cover anyone who is likely to need services
- Pre-existing condition protection is effectively destroyed by splitting the risk pool.
Please note that 51M uninsured by 2026 is 7M worse than before Obamacare went into effect. It's not even back to what we had. #CBOSCORE
— Everett M (@EverettMaroon) May 24, 2017
Relevant tweets below the fold:
Are you a woman of child-bearing age? Can't afford a $1,000 premium hike per month for maternity care?
The average abortion is $500.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) May 24, 2017
Just remember: Paul Ryan said the MacArthur amendment "strengthens" health care and "protects people with pre-existing conditions." pic.twitter.com/gmGbgbeaQL
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) May 24, 2017
Brookings estimates the apples to apples premium costs equalizing for age and actuarial value mixture.
Reminder: Without MacArthur waivers, CBO analysis actually says AHCA ↑ ppl's premiums by 13% on avg, not ↓ by 10%: https://t.co/RyoJ3zJwMF pic.twitter.com/mcoPG9LZIY
— Loren Adler (@LorenAdler) May 25, 2017
Dropping AV is a distributional choice. It benefits healthy people who will not get near the out of pocket maximum and makes the sick pay a higher rate.
OzarkHillbilly
What’s a little thing like people’s lives to get in the way of tax cuts for the wealthy?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: But does it hurt those people more? /Trump base
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Nope. There’s no pain after death.
rikyrah
Thanks for this great recap of the highlights of this legislative evil. I will spread the word.
PaulWartenberg
but the wealthy get $119 billion in savings, right? what’s that compared to 45,000 people dying every year because they lack health care coverage?
/evil
low-tech cyclist
@PaulWartenberg: No, the wealthy get something like $600B in tax cuts. The $119B in (budget) savings is basically how much they’re saving by gutting Medicaid and cutting health care subsidies, minus the $600B in tax cuts and a few other doodads.
ElegantFowl
The CBO model expects few states to get EHB waivers, but it seems likely that the GOP will slip an inter-state competition provision in at the last minute (probably in conference committee the day before final vote). How much would that affect their analysis?
Undertow
Neil Gabler at Billmoyers.com-
This is Trump’s America:
There were three farmers: a German, a Hungarian and an American. Each had a cow. One day, misfortune befell them, and their cows died. Each remonstrated against God, saying God had failed him, and each lost faith. God realized he had to do something to make amends. So he came to Earth and approached the German.
“What can I do to restore your faith?” He asked. And the German answered, “God, I lost my cow. Please give me another cow.” And God did so.
“What can I do to restore your faith?” He asked the Hungarian. And the Hungarian answered, “God, I lost my cow. Please give me that cow and another to compensate.” And God did so.
And finally God came to the American, and He asked, “What can I do to restore your faith?” And the American answered, “God, I lost my cow. Shoot my neighbor’s cow.”