Outrage Of The Month: House Passage Of Trumpcare

On May 4, in what would more appropriately be called the Outrage of the Decade, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives — spurred on by President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price — passed the morally bankrupt legislation known as the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA). This bill, which narrowly passed by a vote of 217 to 213, would have devastating — and, in some cases, fatal — consequences for millions of vulnerable Americans who would be thrown off the health insurance rolls, while at the same time rewarding corporations and the rich with huge tax cuts.
Republicans initially tried to ram an earlier version of the AHCA through the House in March, but that attempt imploded because the bill lacked the support of the party’s more moderate and more conservative members. According to an analysis by Physicians for a National Health Program, the March version of the bill, which was crafted in secrecy and without public committee hearings, would have:

Slashed funding for the Medicaid expansion, which has provided coverage to more than 10 million poor adult Americans in 31 states;

Sharply curtailed the tax credit subsidies available under the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) to lower-income consumers, particularly older adults, to purchase health insurance;

Ended the ACA’s cost-sharing subsidies for copayments and deductibles for lower-income people, incre...

Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - June 1, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news