DENVER – Republicans in the U.S. Senate have delayed a vote on the latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA),which could cost 628,000 Coloradans their health care coverage by 2030.
The move comes amid questions of the bill’s impact and criticism from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
The vote will be delayed until after the July 4 holiday break so Republicans can gather the votes needed to pass it out of the Senate.
Governors John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, and John Kasich, R-Ohio, are among those who have spoken out against the Senate’s effort to reform a health care system that is seeing premiums increase and providers withdraw from state and federal exchanges, leaving some counties with a single provider and no competition.
Hickenlooper and Kasich held a news conference Tuesday in Washington, D.C., outlining their concerns with the BCRA in three categories:
Coverage loss for 22 million Americans;Rollback of Medicaid expansion funding for states and populations that are reliant, andReduction in tax credits for individuals who purchase through the private market.“The bill that the Senate and the (Congressional Budget Office) did an analysis of yesterday is really not acceptable to me in terms of being governor,” Kasich said Tuesday.
He added that both attempts to replace the Affordable Care Act seem to be premature efforts that need additional consideration.
“What’s happened to Republicans is, for seven years they’ve run around bashing Obamacare and they’re the dog that caught the car. Now they don’t know what to do, and you’ve got 22 to 23 million Americans who lose health insurance and they think, ‘that’s great, that’s good public policy.’ What, are you kidding me?” Kasich said.
Colorado is expected to lose $15 billion in Medicaid funding by 2030 if the BCRA is passed as drafted, according to the Colorado Health Institute.
The cuts would result in an estimated 628,000 individuals losing their health care coverage by 2030, raising Colorado’s uninsured rate from the 6.7 percent it reached following the implementation of Obamacare in 2013.
Before Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, 14.3 percent of Colorado’s population was uninsured, and it has been reduced to 6.7 percent.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains would lose $6 million in Colorado alone as a result of a one-year ban on federal funding for the organization that is included in the bill,
Premiums for young people, age 18 to 34, could be reduced by up to 25 percent, about $720 per year, while the elderly would see their premium costs go up about $2,000 a year.
The BCRA’s impact would be particularly hard on rural areas of the state, where higher portions of the population are covered as a result of the Medicaid expansion.
In Montezuma and San Juan counties, 11.2 and 13.1 percent of their populations, respectively, are covered through ACA expansion, according to the Health Institute.
Dolores and Archuleta counties are close behind with almost 1 in 10 residents enrolled.
Hickenlooper said he hopes U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, will be mindful of the impact on rural Coloradans when casting his vote on the BCRA.
“He (Gardner) is a smart, talented guy, but he understands the hardships and difficulties in rural life and this bill would punish people in rural Colorado,” Hickenlooper said.
Lperkins@durangoherald.com
