• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy

   

  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Donate
  • Summer Policy Institute 2023

Research That Works for Kentucky

  • Topics
    • Budget & Tax
    • Criminal Justice
    • Economic Security
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Jobs & The Economy
  • Types
    • News
    • Op-Ed
    • Research

   

  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Donate
  • Summer Policy Institute 2023

Copyright © 2023 KyPolicy Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Sitemap

Op-Ed

House Health Care Bill Is an Even Worse Threat to Kentuckians

Dustin Pugel | May 2, 2017

Let’s be clear, rather than a compromise, the new version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) makes a deeply harmful plan even more destructive.

The original proposal, the House’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, failed in part because some members were rightly worried about 24 million people losing health coverage, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office. The so-called “Meadows-MacArthur amendment” is the only change in Congress’ second attempt. This new version keeps all of the damaging components of the first bill while threatening coverage for even more Americans by scrapping protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

More On Health Care: Nearly 250,000 Kentuckians Covered by Medicaid Will Need to Take Action to Stay Covered

There are an estimated 1.8 million Kentuckians who have some form of pre-existing condition. The bill would give states the option of basing premiums on the health status of each person, resulting in skyrocketing premiums for many individuals. The Center for American Progress estimated the added annual cost of premiums in Kentucky for several conditions:

  • Asthma: $3,920
  • Diabetes: $5,060
  • Major depression: $7,680
  • Pregnancy: $15,660
  • Breast Cancer: $25,930

Most people can’t afford additional five digit premium costs, so the end result will be that the people who need care the most will be left without insurance. To address this problem, states could provide high risk pools that in theory would provide coverage to uninsurable residents. But Kentucky has tried that idea before. The state’s old high risk pool covered only 4,700 people at its peak, the premiums were nearly double those of comparable plans and for the first year an individual was enrolled it didn’t even pay for care related to the conditions that made coverage unaffordable.

Let’s not forget, either, that this bill still effectively eliminates expanded Medicaid. Around 470,000 Kentuckians are covered through the Medicaid expansion. That program has greatly helped hospitals and providers, contributed to 13,000 new healthcare sector jobs and is already improving health by some measures. Ending the expansion would not only reverse our nation-leading healthcare gains, but stripping $3.5 billion in funding out of our economy could result in 80,000 fewer jobs by 2022 according to the Economic Policy Institute. About 20,000 of those jobs would come from eastern Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District, a figure higher than any other district in the country according to the report.

In addition to those who will lose coverage because of the end of Medicaid expansion, there are close to one million other Kentuckians enrolled in traditional Medicaid who are under the gun of the AHCA. The bill reaches past the Affordable Care Act and fundamentally restructures how Medicaid is paid for, resulting in a permanent squeeze on federal funds for the program. That will force Kentucky to shoulder a $16 billion cost shift over 10 years, resulting in lawmakers having to decide about rationing care, cutting benefits or reducing payments to healthcare providers.

Also still in the bill are cuts to the assistance in paying insurance premiums and other costs provided under the Affordable Care Act. These cuts would result in a $1,804 increase in out-of-pocket costs for the average Kentuckian purchasing insurance on Healthcare.gov. For older and low-income Kentuckians this change is even worse. For example, a 60 year old Kentuckian earning $22,000 a year would see her premium rise $6,266 – eating up an additional 28 percent of her annual income.

Kentucky’s six House members come from a state that, in many ways, has the most to lose from the AHCA. The latest iteration of that bill is an even worse version of the first – a radical and dangerous departure from health progress we’ve experienced over the past several years. All Kentuckians are better off when our neighbors are healthier and more financially secure. If Congress move forward with this bill, we will all pay the price.

This column originally ran in the Courier-Journal on May 2, 2017. It ran in the Lexington Herald-Leader on May 3, 2017.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail

Primary Sidebar

Get KyPolicy news updates in your inbox

Sign Up

Sidebar

Perspectives

Shorting State Workers’ Pay Hurts Us All

Cutting Bourbon Industry Taxes Harms the Communities That Sustain It

Lawmakers Should Help Our Kids, Not Lock More Up in Failing Juvenile System

Income Tax Reduction Is Another Blow to Rural Kentucky

Kentucky Should Not Volunteer for Greater Inequality by Becoming More Like Tennessee

Other Health Care Items

Op-Ed

Coalition Letter: Kentucky General Assembly Must Use Special Session to Protect the Health of Kentuckians, Our Workforce and Our Children’s Education

Op-Ed

Medicaid Filled the COVID Coverage Gap

Family doctor visit

Op-Ed

Kentucky Lives and Livelihoods Are on the Line with Supreme Court Challenge to ACA

Ky. Policy

Footer

Research that works for Kentucky

433 Chestnut Street, Berea, KY 40403

Phone: 859-756-4605

General information and inquiries: info@kypolicy.org

   

Help us make the facts free and accessible to everyone. That’s how Kentucky will thrive.

Donate

  • Topics
    • Budget & Tax
    • Criminal Justice
    • Economic Security
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Jobs & The Economy
  • Work
    • News
    • Op-Ed
    • Research
  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Contact

Get KyPolicy news updates in your inbox

Sign Up

Copyright © 2023 KyPolicy Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Sitemap

made by P&P
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!