Morning Round Up: “Crappy Coverage” Edition
A look at this week’s news shows just how devastating TrumpCare would be for Americans – kicking millions of people off coverage and forcing them to pay more for less coverage and care. Take a look:
Wall Street Journal: Senate Health Bill Could Hit Employer-Sponsored Plans
“Little-noticed provisions in the Senate Republican health bill could have a significant impact on employer-provided health plans, removing four million more people from such coverage in 2018, compared with current law, according to one projection.”
“These provisions could pave the way for higher out-of-pocket costs for many workers.”
“Employers would be free to offer less-comprehensive plans that limit coverage to a certain number of physician visits, days in the hospital and prescriptions.“
Huffington Post: The Secret To Lower Premiums In The GOP Health Plan Is The Really Crappy Coverage
“People who now buy insurance on healthcare.gov or a state exchange like Covered California would have to pay 74 percent more on average to get equivalent coverage, Kaiser’s analysts found.”
“‘Simply put, if Republicans get their way, then insurance policies will tend to cover less care, and fewer people with serious medical problems will be carrying insurance.”
“The new analysis of the Republican bill shows how empty that promise was. For a fraction of the cost, you also get a fraction of the health care.”
New York Times: Projected Drop in Medicaid Spending Heightens Hurdle for G.O.P. Health Bill
“The Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday in a new report, which detailed how Medicaid changes would cut more deeply as they go fully into force…”
“‘…A large gap would grow between Medicaid spending under current law and under this bill,’ the new report said, and that gap would widen, so that federal Medicaid spending in 2036 would be more than a third lower under the bill than under the Affordable Care Act.”
“…insurance experts see a risk that healthy people might sign up for the low-cost, less comprehensive policies, leaving sicker people in the more expensive plans.”
New York Times The UpShot: There’s Only One Grocery Store in Most Rural Areas. Should We Expect Two Health Insurers?
“Republicans say a big reason the Affordable Care Act needs to go is that it fosters weak competition and limited choice in insurance marketplaces. But their replacement bill could actually make the problem worse in the rural counties that are struggling the most.”
“If the Senate bill becomes law, the problem could become worse. The legislation cuts back on the federal subsidies that many low- and moderate-income Americans use to buy health insurance, with sharper cutbacks for Americans nearing Medicare eligibility.”
Washington Post: Trump loves the Senate health-care plan. It would break all of his promises.
“…The unsurprising result is that spending $1.2 trillion less on health insurance for people would, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, lead to 22 million fewer people having it in 10 years' time.”
“But even the people who managed to keep their coverage would in a lot of cases end up paying more to get less of it.”
“The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the premiums people would have to pay would go up an average of 74 percent for a silver plan the next three years, with the poorest people getting hit with the biggest increases.”
“The CBO, after all, calculates that 64-year-olds making $68,200 or less would have to pay more for a bronze plan under the Senate bill than they do for a silver plan under Obamacare — although, in this case, it would be middle-class people who would lose the most. Consider this: A 64 year-old making $56,800 would go from paying $6,800 for a silver plan that covered 70 percent of their expected medical costs to $16,000 for a bronze plan that only covered 58 percent.”