TrumpCare, A.K.A. "tens of millions of Americans vulnerable to outright denial of coverage by private insurers" [View all]

Posting on his platform Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said that he was recommending to Senate Republicans that they replace the federal subsidies for ACA premiums, which are sent to private health insurers, with money sent directly to the American people. Although Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said there was no “formal proposal,” Republican lawmakers jumped onboard, and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he was “writing the bill right now.”

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This is hardly the first time that Trump has proposed repealing the ACA, on which a record-high 24.3 million people now rely for marketplace plans. The most sweeping of these efforts notably fizzled back in 2017, when the late Sen. John McCain voted against it in the middle of the night. Even in the absence of outright repeal efforts, Republicans in Congress reduced the mandate penalty to $0 in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This summer, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized a rule that will increase out-of-pocket costs and may lead to as many as 1.8 million Americans losing coverage. At the same time, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act advanced several changes that will limit the ACA’s effectiveness.

Amid such vitriol at the ACA, it can be easy to forget that the law brought America’s uninsured rate to a historic low, improved health outcomes across a range of conditions and reduced health inequities. What’s more — and what’s especially important when evaluating Americans’ health care costs — Medicaid expansion through the ACA is also associated with reductions in medical debt. These gains help explain why 64% of Americans favor the ACA, though it garners considerably less support among Republicans.

Absent the preservation of the ACA’s core provisions, tens of millions of Americans with preexisting medical conditions would be vulnerable to outright denial of coverage by private insurers. In 2017, the health policy research group KFF estimated that 27% of non-elderly American adults had previously declinable preexisting conditions. That share has likely only increased as complications from Covid-19 have become more common and more people have enjoyed the ACA’s protections — whether gaining a primary care doctor or opting for tests that before the ACA might have revealed a preexisting condition.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-health-care-plan-obamacare-aca-problems-rcna242971