Republican Representatives have unveiled a bill to repeal much of Obamacare, aka the Affordable Care Act. President Trump made a campaign pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare, although after becoming president he softened his stance, and stated he intends to keep certain parts of the law, while scrapping others. The House Republican proposal reflects a similar stance.
The proposal includes keeping coverage for pre-existing conditions and allowing children to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26, while eliminating the mandate that forces Americans and employers to buy insurance and freezing Medicaid expansion in the year 2020. Subsidies will be replaced with refundable tax credits that increase with age, and get phased out for people with income above $75,000 per year ($150,000 for joint filers).
Thus the new plan aims to help America’s middle class, who currently are too “rich” for Medicaid, but also don’t receive help paying for insurance under Obamacare—the cut off for financial aid is a $48,000 annual salary. Working Americans aged from their 20’s to 40’s will receive more financial help under the new plan in most areas of the country, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
However the plan has drawn criticism for scrapping the limits Obamacare placed on premiums for older citizens, many of whom would pay more under the new proposals.
Regardless of the new plan’s popularity, many Republicans hold the view that something has to be done. Representative Greg Walden, R-Oregon stated:
“We are also trying to rescue the individual insurance market. It is cratering, it is collapsing, the CEO of Aetna said it’s in a ‘death spiral.’ One out every three counties in America now only has one health insurance option.”
In addition to financial changes, the new plan also contains moral provisions. The bill proposes to withhold federal funds for any organization that “provides for abortions” (except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother). The target of this part of the legislation is primarily Planned Parenthood, a family planning and women’s health organization that provides abortion services in addition to other medical services such as breast and cervical cancer checks.
Planned Parenthood say they don’t use federal money for abortion services, since it is still prohibited under current law for federal money to fund abortions. The organization also receives money from donors. Trump did offer to protect Planned Parenthood’s funding, if they agreed to stop abortion-related services—the organization refused. Thus, if the new bill passes, Planned Parenthood may stand to lose all its federal funding.
Although the Republicans have a majority in the House, they only have a narrow majority in the Senate so it may take several months to get the bill passed through Congress.
(NTD News Staff)
