Senate Repeal Only Bill Promotes “Worse Care” for Black Women

By Christy M. Gamble

The Senate is attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without a replacement plan, and if the Senate is successful in this attempt to repeal, we could experience a disastrous impact on the American health care system.

According to the recently released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) analysis, a complete repeal of the ACA without a replacement plan would leave an estimated 32 million people uninsured by 2026. That would in large part be due to the repeal of Medicaid expansion and subsidies to help people purchase insurance coverage through the ACA’s marketplace. In addition, those who remain insured through the marketplace will see their insurance premiums double in less than ten years. This same analysis projects this country would experience a “downward pressure on enrollment and upward pressure on premiums.” (Of note, the CBO/JCT analysis of a revised Senate ACA repeal and replacement plan would result in an estimated 22 million people being uninsured by 2026.)

It’s disheartening to know the Senate has had the opportunity to learn from the failed attempts to repeal and replace the ACA but continues to push forward with any plan to repeal the current law as a matter of ego and pride, putting the lives of millions of Americans at risk. Instead of listening to the concerns of their Senate colleagues — and constituents — and ensuring our most vulnerable citizens remain insured with access to quality, affordable health care, our Senate has chosen to forge ahead not with a plan to improve the health of our country but an attempt to take away the law that has saved the lives of countless Americans. Once again, our elected officials have failed to protect the overwhelming majority of their constituents in favor of protecting the wealth of the nation’s top 1%.

Our Black women and their families — and all Americans — deserve much better than this, and we at the Black Women’s Health Imperative will continue to call on our elected officials to make their constituents’ needs a priority. Instead of repealing a law that has improved the health of millions of Americans, we call on our Senate (and House) to engage in public hearings and meaningful discussions with the people they are in Washington to serve. We need to cross the partisan divide and find ways to improve a law that, at its core, has goals that we can all agree on: to provide affordable, quality insurance coverage to everyone in America.

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Black Women's Health Impe

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We are the only national organization dedicated to improving the health and wellness of our nation’s 21 million Black women and girls.

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