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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe way the GOP health care plan works: the more help you need, the less you get.
The perverse reality of the Republican health care billThe Congressional Budget Offices analysis of the GOPs American Health Care Act is one of the most singularly devastating documents Ive seen in American politics. For a thorough explanation of the findings, read Sarah Kliffs explainer. But here is the one-sentence summary: Under the GOPs bill, the more help you need, the less you get.
The AHCA would increase the uninsured population by about 24 million people which is more people than live in New York state. But the raw numbers obscure the cruelty of the choices. The policy is particularly bad for the old, the sick, and the poor. It is particularly good for the rich, the young, and the healthy.
Here, in short, is what the AHCA does. The bill guts Medicaid, halves the value of Obamacares insurance subsidies, and allows insurers to charge older Americans 500 percent more than they charge young Americans.
Then it takes the subsidies that are left and reworks them to be worth less to the poor and the old, takes the insurers that are left and lets them change their plans to cover fewer medical expenses for the sick, and rewrites the tax code to offer hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to the rich. As Dylan Matthews writes, it is an act of class warfare by the rich against the poor.
The result isnt just 24 million fewer people with insurance: Of those who remain insured, the pool is tilted toward younger, healthier people who need help less, because many of the older, poorer people who need the most help can no longer afford insurance. As German Lopez notes, a 64-year-old making $26,500 would see his premiums rise by 750 percent. 750 percent! And with that 64-year-old gone, premiums are a little bit lower, because the pool is a little bit younger.
The AHCA would increase the uninsured population by about 24 million people which is more people than live in New York state. But the raw numbers obscure the cruelty of the choices. The policy is particularly bad for the old, the sick, and the poor. It is particularly good for the rich, the young, and the healthy.
Here, in short, is what the AHCA does. The bill guts Medicaid, halves the value of Obamacares insurance subsidies, and allows insurers to charge older Americans 500 percent more than they charge young Americans.
Then it takes the subsidies that are left and reworks them to be worth less to the poor and the old, takes the insurers that are left and lets them change their plans to cover fewer medical expenses for the sick, and rewrites the tax code to offer hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to the rich. As Dylan Matthews writes, it is an act of class warfare by the rich against the poor.
The result isnt just 24 million fewer people with insurance: Of those who remain insured, the pool is tilted toward younger, healthier people who need help less, because many of the older, poorer people who need the most help can no longer afford insurance. As German Lopez notes, a 64-year-old making $26,500 would see his premiums rise by 750 percent. 750 percent! And with that 64-year-old gone, premiums are a little bit lower, because the pool is a little bit younger.
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/13/14914802/republican-health-care-bill-perverse-cbo-ahca
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The way the GOP health care plan works: the more help you need, the less you get. (Original Post)
CousinIT
Mar 2017
OP
Skittles
(153,212 posts)1. isn't that how the Greedy Old Pig party works in general?
PsychoBabble
(837 posts)2. Brilliant! Dems need to
Message better. Take our rational policy points, condense, sharpen, and create visceral emotional impact.
The Repubs do it, but lie. It works.
We need to do it .. with truth.