US Rep. Shimkus statement on GOP health care law

But the insurance industry is not on that list – even though it stands to lose millions of customers. About a third of the nation’s 3,100 counties are down to just one insurer.

On Monday, House Republicans introduced the “manager’s amendment” to their legislation-known as the American Health Care Act or AHCA-that was aimed at appeasing some House members who objected to the original version.

Two days before the GOP legislation was set for an initial vote in Congress and then delayed due to last-minute wrangling and efforts to gain support, she described the bill as a disgrace, a pro-life disaster, a huge step back, catastrophic for Catholic social teaching and something that would do incredible damage.

“I heard people shouting ‘It’s been pulled!’ It was so exciting”, said Frigand, who’s been calling voters in other states, urging them to lobby against the AHCA.

This story also ran on NPR.

Freedom Caucus members were signaling late Thursday night that some of their demands were being met.

But if the first bill dies in the House, the broader message could be devastating for both Trump and House Republicans. Since Republicans won control of the House, the Senate, and the White House in November, they have trumpeted the potential of unified Republican government and laid out an ambitious agenda. From 2010 to 2016, under a president who could be counted on to veto every attempt to roll back his signature achievement, the House passed a variety of bills that would have scotched significant parts of ObamaCare, and just past year the entire Congress approved one completely repealing the law. Overall, 52 million Americans under 65 would be uninsured by 2026 compared with 28 million that year under current law, the CBO said.

Obama’s statute has spread coverage to 20 million people and required insurers to cover numerous services and barred them from refusing policies to the very sick.

The second thing though is that this could become a self-fulfilling prophecy because the more uncertainty you sow in the marketplaces about the rules that the insurance companies have to operate by, the less likely they’re going to want to participate, and the more likely, if they do participate, they are to raise rates.

The Affordable Care Act is improving Americans’ health care coverage and choice. For them, the elimination of the health insurer tax makes the GOP bill look appealing, said Ana Gupte, a health analyst with Leerink, an investment bank.

“We’ve just been dismissed”, she said, noting that she attended a few small group meetings on Capitol Hill but “they were not meetings to get our input on what ought to be done with the bill but meetings to tell us what was going to be done”.

Even insurers with many customers on ACA policies now will be better off financially in the GOP bill, Gupte said. Nearly no one who is not directly employed by the Republican Party thinks this combination makes sense.

While the bill would do harm to older Americans, it would provide generous benefits to special interests. There was also opposition from doctors, hospitals, consumer groups and AARP. But Republicans have their sights on cutting Medicaid and could pursue separate legislation that changes the program from an open-ended entitlement to one with capped funding – as the GOP health bill would have done.

When will insurers make their decisions on 2018? The governor is negotiating with employers, seeking money to compensate the state and he’s asking the Trump administration for help. The Long Beach, Calif. -based company operates in about a dozen states.

Health experts say too much change could undermine the delicate balancing act of the law, which sought to broaden coverage to people who would not otherwise buy insurance. Next steps should include building on its successes while looking for ways to further bend the cost curve for low- and middle-income families, insuring more, not fewer people, and continuing to strengthen ACA provisions created to improve care quality.

“When you ask the question, then, what would be the effect of repealing the ACA, there’s no flawless way to answer this question”, said Benjamin Sommers, an associate professor of health policy and economics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Alina Salganicoff, the vice president and director of women’s policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, assessed the provision differently, saying it would put “women in the hard position of finding work soon after delivery and needing to find childcare, or staying home and being uninsured”.