GOP plan would yank lifesaving care for millions

In 2014, a resident of Sun City Center named Regina Hebert got the kind of news every person dreads; after finding a lump in her breast, she was told by her doctor that she had breast cancer. She would soon undergo two surgeries, and months of chemotherapy and radiation.

Fortunately for Regina, her treatments paid off. Today, she’s in stable health and still operating her small business. And she credits the Affordable Care Act with saving her life.

Before the ACA went into effect, Regina had been unable to get coverage because insurance companies classified her arthritis as a pre-existing condition. She says that, without the ACA, there’s no way she could have afforded the $200,000 in bills her cancer treatments required.

Millions of Americans have similar stories to tell — folks from across the state of Florida, and in nearly every corner of the United States. People whose lives have been saved or changed for the better because of the Affordable Care Act.

Now, Senate Republicans are threatening to undo all this progress by introducing the Better Care Reconciliation Act. As a candidate, Donald Trump made a series of promises on health care. He said everyone would be covered, he would lower costs and he’d protect Medicaid. The Senate health care bill violates each and every one of these promises.

The Congressional Budget Office, an office that Paul Ryan calls the right referee, just found that 22 million people will lose coverage over the next decade from the Senate GOP bill; even more devastating, 15 million will lose coverage by 2018 alone. Four million will lose their employer-based coverage. And more than 2 million Floridians will become uninsured because of this bill.

Contrary to what Republicans might say, their plan won’t make health care more affordable. Instead, it will reduce financial assistance for premiums, and eliminate assistance that lowers co-pays and deductibles. In other words, it will lead to skyrocketing out of pocket costs for working families.

Consider this stunning fact: initial estimates project that a 60-year-old resident of Orange County who makes $43,875 a year (or 351 percent of the federal poverty level) could experience as much as a $10,190 increase in annual premiums. And nationally, the average marketplace enrollee between ages 60 and 64 would see a total cost increase of $5,618.

To make matters worse, this Republican bill would drastically cut services for many of the most vulnerable people in the nation, including seniors in nursing homes, Americans with disabilities, people struggling to overcome opioid addiction, and working families on Medicaid. And it does all this while giving a massive tax break to the wealthy and to big corporations. In fact, nearly 45 percent of the $700 billion in tax cuts would go toward the top 1 percent of households making more than $875,000 per year.

It should come across as no surprise that only three of 10 Americans support Republican plans for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. The GOP should also realize that, in the eyes of American voters, their party will own whatever happens to our health-care system from this point forward. In fact, nearly twothirds of Americans already believe Donald Trump and Republicans are now solely responsible for any future problems with the ACA.

I had the honor of working under former President Barack Obama as part on his health-care reform team. When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, we knew the law wasn’t perfect. President Obama himself has said so repeatedly.

But there’s no disputing the incredible impact of the ACA in offering more than 20 million Americans affordable health insurance.

As Regina Hebert, who may not be alive today if it weren’t for the Affordable Care Act, said: “Repealing the law at this point would be like bulldozing an entire house down when there’s just a leak in the roof.”

I couldn’t agree any more with Regina’s words. And I hope our leaders in Congress will remember her story — and the story of millions of people just like her — when they cast their votes on the future of America’s health care.

Donald Trump made a series of promises on health care. The Senate health care bill violates each and every one.