Broken Promises

Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law in March of 2010, seven years ago this month, the GOP has called for its repeal. The Tea Party began and staged rallies to repeal the ACA. Mitt Romney ran for President and lost promising to repeal the ACA. Donald Trump ran for President and won promising to repeal the ACA. Politico ran a story on yesterday quoting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that, ‘[the GOP] need to deliver’ on Obamacare repeal.

The fact is, the GOP “health care bill,” the American Health Care Act (AHCA), will absolutely not repeal the ACA.

The AHCA certainly makes massive changes to the ACA. However, while Congressional GOP say they are repealing and replacing the ACA, the bill language says something very different. The bill repeals parts of the ACA. The Medicaid expansion that has helped millions is repealed. The subsidies that continue to help low and modest income families are repealed. Those with high income get a tax cut through a section of the ACA that is repealed.

The ACA, if the current GOP health bill becomes law, will still exist. However it will create enormous holes in the ACA, holes where the most vulnerable among us will be lost.

Over the next few weeks, Congress will push this bill through the House, and maybe even the Senate. They don’t seem bothered to do this without any independent analysis of how much it’ll cost, or how many will lose coverage. Just remember, if you love or hate the ACA, the Republicans aren’t repealing it, they are amending it, and it’s going to hurt millions.