• 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

Analysis

New Amendment to Healthcare Repeal Bill Threatens Kentuckians with Pre-existing Conditions

Dustin Pugel | April 27, 2017

The so-called “Meadows-MacArthur” amendment to the Affordable Care Act repeal bill does nothing to protect Kentuckians from the bill’s harmful changes, but makes things worse by jeopardizing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. There are 1.8 million people in Kentucky under 65 who have some kind of pre-existing condition, which is 50 percent of the non-elderly population.

The amendment does not repeal what is called “guaranteed issue” (the requirement that insurers offer coverage to everyone, regardless of their medical history), but allows states to waive certain requirements, effectively gutting that guarantee. The bill would allow states to opt-out of ACA requirements such as:

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

  • The Essential Health Benefits like maternity care, preventive care and drug treatment.
  • The part of the law that makes insurers base premium prices on all the people in a given community rather than each person’s medical history.

Proponents suggest it would allow insurers to charge less in premiums on average. But insurers would be able to charge lower premiums on average exactly because they would charge prohibitively high premiums for people with pre-existing conditions and offer skimpy plans that don’t cover the kinds of care really needed.

The amendment effectively allows states to return the market to where it was before, when people with pre-existing conditions couldn’t access affordable coverage for their conditions.  The Center for American Progress (CAP) estimates how much more people with five different kinds of pre-existing conditions might be charged if the bill were to pass.

According to CAP, many of the 1.8 million Kentuckians with pre-existing conditions are over 45, but most are younger as shown in the graph below.

 

Source: Center for American Progress.

The ACA allowed cancer survivors, pregnant women, diabetics, and many others to get affordable, quality insurance, many for the first time. Since then, we’ve seen dramatic increases in screenings for diseases like diabetes and cancer screenings, more chronic disease management, and greater use of preventive care that keeps some people from developing pre-existing conditions. With this latest iteration of an Obamacare repeal bill, that coverage and subsequent care could be ripped away from even more people.

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

pexels cottonbro studio 5867700

Analysis

Nearly 250,000 Kentuckians Covered by Medicaid Will Need to Take Action to Stay Covered

Mother child and doctor

Analysis

Kentucky Will Start Providing 10,000 More New Mothers with a Year of Postpartum Medicaid Coverage

Family doctor visit

Analysis

The 2021 Legislative Session Health Care Wrap Up: Steps in the Right Direction

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!