6 Reasons Why The Health-Care Bill Is Not Earning Support
A few days ago the Senate Budget Committee released a newly revised version of the health-care act. The bill still faces several challenges in gaining support. Here are 6 reasons why many are less than enthusiastic about this bill.
1. 22 Million
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 22 million people that were insured under Obamacare will loose their coverage. Some of those 22 million would be willing to lose their coverage due to the fact that they would no longer be required by law to have health insurance. Because of this it is expected that many healthy people will not be willing to pay for healthcare coverage. This could have a negative effect on the price of healthcare for those who need it the most, older and less healthy Americans; due to the fact that younger Americans will no longer be contributing to the overall cost of healthcare offsetting the burden.
Source: Washington Post
2 . Medicaid
The government under this new bill is putting medicaid on a budget. This means that states will no longer receive unlimited federal subsidies to pay for newly eligible Medicaid beneficiaries. Under Obamacare, funding for Medicaid was greatly expanded. Under this Senate bill future federal Medicaid spending will be ‘capped’ for each individually enrollee; transferring the burden of paying for the program to the individual states.
Source: New York Times
3. Elderly Left in the Dust
The cost of insurance payments or premiums for older Americans will be much higher under the Senate bill. One example sites a 64 old American woman would have to pay 3 times more than under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. This is a terrible burden for those older Americans, many of whom are on a fixed income and facing retirement.
Source: New York Times
3. Doesn’t Address the Problem
This bill does not address the overall cost of health care. Meaning that hospitals continue to increase prices for services. The average cost of a 3 day hospital stay is around $30,00 according to Healthcare.gov. Not to mention the cost of doctor visits. Health care bills are supposed to help the American people afford medical expenses and this plan does not address the fundamental issue of rising costs.
Source:New York Times
4. A Divided Republican Party
Several GOP senators have publicly announced that they will not vote for this bill. In an interview with CNN Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah said they’re “not ready to vote for this bill.”
Susan Collins of Main also is also against this bill. This is due to that fact that senators are voting for their constituents who heavily rely on medicaid and have chronic illnesses. If they don’t support their constituents they will not be voted into office in upcoming elections.
Source: CNN
5. Pushing Costs to the State
In Alabama alone the lose of federal money would force Alabama to raise taxes which could lead to fewer programs, those that particularly rely on Medicaid.
In Pennsylvania if Medicaid were to be cut it would have a negative effect on drug and alcohol treatment in the state. This would be devastating to the state due to the fact that the opioid addiction kills up to 13 Pennsylvania residents each day.
In Delaware addiction is also a major issue and when Medicaid is cut back fewer people are treated which can lead to death.
Source: New York Times
6. No Enthusiasm
This newly revised bill would hurt many Americans mainly the poor and the elderly. As stated above many Senators feel that the bill is not ready and they would not vote for it. We will have to wait for further revisions in the hope that this will bring the Senate to a majority.
Many Senators feel that it impacts the people of their state too negatively. Therefore compromising their positions as state senators. In order to re-visit the bill many senators feel that there needs to be major changes. The Senate bill does not do enough to revise Obamacare, this is the core of the problem yet to be addressed.
Source: New York Times
