A version of this appeared in all editions of the Sky Hi News 5/10/17
With a narrow vote, the GOP dominated House of Representatives threw their version of repealing Obamacare and replacing it with Trumpcare to the Senate. Colorado’s GOP Senator Cory Gardner will be facing voters again in 2020. He is one of a GOP committee of thirteen men crafting the Senate version. Women were the largest group harmed by the House version.
With a narrow vote, the GOP dominated House of Representatives threw their version of repealing Obamacare and replacing it with Trumpcare to the Senate. Colorado’s GOP Senator Cory Gardner will be facing voters again in 2020. He is one of a GOP committee of thirteen men crafting the Senate version. Women were the largest group harmed by the House version.
If Gardner can take comfort that voters may forget how he voted in on Trumpcare with any Senate alterations in 2017 or 2018, he should dream on because the full impact will be seen clearly for what it does since it will be fully implemented and painfully and personally felt around 2020. It is not only a pocket book issue, it is a matter of life and death for those harmed by the House Trumpcare version, including women, the over 50 crowd, lower middle class, the poor, the near poor, those with pre-existing conditions. All with employer provided insurance are at risk, as well.. Over 400,000 in Colorado alone would lose their health insurance in ten years. Rural hospitals and urban charity hospitals would lose many paying customers, causing some to close.
The most damaging hit on Colorado is that funding for Medicaid expansion under Obamacare would be eliminated. With Obamacare Medicaid qualifications were loosened to cover those who fell in the crack between qualifying tor traditional Medicaid and their an income level needed to pay for the lowest subsidized premiums. Colorado could vote to restore the loss of Medicaid expansion at the cost to taxpayers of $15 billion over ten years. That is how significant this loss to the state and our families would be.
With the House Trumpcare bill. 22% of Colorado adults with the most conservative definition of pre-existing conditions could be dumped into a “high risk” pool. So inadequately would those pools be funded under the House version that the premiums would have to be raised to the point of being unaffordable to make up the difference. In any case women could be charged more than men again for coverage of their special services, from pre-natal to maternity care, cancer screenings, mammograms, birth control pills, assuming those benefits would even be offered. All guarantees of such benefit inclusion were removed in the House Trumpcare bill.
Winners could be premium reductions for some , especially men under 50 with no pre-existing conditions . The greatest beneficiaries are the wealthy who saw Obamacare taxes on them of $300 billion eliminated and some health care providers who were relieved of another $300 billion in taxes. No one will be required to have insurance and employers will not be required to provide it or to include essential benefits or coverage of pre-existing conditions if they do.
In 2018, all members of the House of Representatives will be up for re-election. In 2017 if not later, all will get another bite at their poisonous Trumpcare apple because the Senate and the House versions will go to a conference committee. The result of that melding will be voted upon by the House and Senate again . Keep your eyes on the following GOP Representatives in Congress who voted for the House Trumpcare bill this month: Doug Lamborn, Ken Buck, and Scott Tipton. GOP Rep. Mike Coffman and all Democrats voted no, including Grand County’s Representative Jared Polis.
The sources for these figures and analyses follow..
http://kff.org/health-costs/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-aca-replacement-plans-womens-health/
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/house-health-care-vote/index.html?sr=fbCNN050417house-health-care-vote/0745PMVODtopLink&linkId=37210223
http://www.skyhinews.com/news/colorado-health-care-series-part-4-experts-warn-to-beware-effects-of-dismantling-obamacare/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2017/03/22/the-ahcas-tax-changes-and-transfers-would-benefit-the-wealthy-hurt-the-low
http://connectforhealthco.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/C4HC_OE_2016-17Report_WEB.pdf
http://www.9news.com/news/local/next/colorado-congressman-ken-buck-explains-his-healthcare-flip-flop/437288128
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