Tag: GOP attack on healthcare

Trump Administration Guts Funding to ACA’s Navigator Program

The Trump administration’s massive cuts to the ACA’s Navigator Program, which helps people sign up for insurance, will make it harder for people across the country to find affordable health care coverage. Last week, Navigator groups learned their funding would be cut by more than 70 percent, and states across the country are already bracing for impact.

In North Carolina, navigators who helped nearly 520,000 residents sign up for health insurance this year will be harder to find after Trump’s funding cuts.

The News & Observer: Trump agency slashes funds to NC groups that help people get health insurance under ACA

“They are the public face of the Affordable Care Act in North Carolina for legions of residents stumped by the complexities of health insurance. But next year, ACA navigators — the trained instructors who explain health benefits and help people enroll — will be harder to find as a result of federal funding cuts … In North Carolina, which has consistently had some of the nation’s highest enrollments, the navigator budget will be cut by 85 percent — from $3.4 million to $500,000.”

Continue reading “Trump Administration Guts Funding to ACA’s Navigator Program”

Republican tax bill fuels anxiety across the nation’s healthcare system

The following article by Noam N. Levey was posted on the Los Angeles Times website December 18, 2017:

A surgical team operates on a Medicaid patient at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson. Across the country, many medical providers fear tax cuts will force major cuts to the healthcare safety net. (Los Angeles Times

Doctors, hospitals, patient advocates and others who work in the nation’s healthcare system are growing increasingly alarmed at the Republican tax bill, warning that it threatens care for millions of sick Americans.

The legislation – which GOP leaders are rushing to pass this week – will eliminate beginning in 2019 the Affordable Care Act penalty on consumers without health coverage, a move many experts warn will weaken insurance markets in parts of the country. Continue reading “Republican tax bill fuels anxiety across the nation’s healthcare system”

Republicans’ latest plan to repeal Obamacare’s insurance requirement could wreak havoc in some very red states

The following article by Noam N. Levey was posted on the Los Angeles Times website November 27, 2017:

Serena Reeves, a health insurance counselor in Nebraska, helps Rifaah Hussein sign up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act. The latest GOP plan to repeal the law’s insurance mandate risks further inflating high premiums in some states. (Associated Press)

The Senate Republican plan to use tax legislation to repeal the federal requirement that Americans have health coverage threatens to derail insurance markets in conservative, rural swaths of the country, according to a Los Angeles Times data analysis.

That could leave consumers in these regions — including most or all of Alaska, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming, as well as parts of many other states — with either no options for coverage or health plans that are prohibitively expensive.

There are 454 counties nationwide with only one health insurer on the marketplace in 2018 and where the cheapest plan available to a 40-year-old consumer costs at least $500 a month. Markets in these places risk collapsing if Congress scraps the individual insurance mandate.

Continue reading “Republicans’ latest plan to repeal Obamacare’s insurance requirement could wreak havoc in some very red states”

Senate GOP changes tax bill to add Obamacare mandate repeal, make individual income cuts expire

The following article by Mike DeBonis and Damian Paletta was posted on the Washington Post website November 14, 2017:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) said on Nov. 14, he was “optimistic” about adding the individual mandate repeal to the tax bill. (The Washington Post)

Senate Republican leaders moved Tuesday to include a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate in their tax bill, a major change of strategy as they try to accomplish two of their top domestic priorities in a single piece of legislation.

They also announced that the individual tax cuts in the plan would be made temporary, expiring at the end of 2025 to comply with Senate rules limiting the impact of legislation on the long-term deficit. A corporate tax cut, reducing the rate from 35 to 20 percent, would be left permanent. Continue reading “Senate GOP changes tax bill to add Obamacare mandate repeal, make individual income cuts expire”