[Anchorage, Alaska] – The health bill passed by the House would effectively end the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of Medicaid and cause millions to lose coverage, according to a new report from the Washington, DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Delaying or phasing in the House bill’s massive cost shifts to states, as the Senate is reportedly considering, would have no effect on the ultimate outcome.
 
The House bill would shift 66 million dollars in costs to Alaska. Alaska would almost certainly be unable to absorb these additional costs given our present budget deficit of 3 billion. As a result, Alaska would likely be forced to end its expansion, leaving more than 33,000 low-income adults who have gained Medicaid coverage under the expansion at severe risk of becoming uninsured.
 
As the Senate considers changes to the House GOP health bill, some have claimed that phasing the repeal out more slowly or delaying it by two years would avoid these harms. But neither of these proposals change the ultimate outcome: a huge cost-shift to states ending the Medicaid expansion and causing millions to lose coverage.
 
“It doesn’t matter if you end the Medicaid expansion in two years or four years, or if you do it quickly or slowly – the bottom line is that Alaska gets hit with massive costs and roughly 33,000 Alaskan’s will lose the health coverage they need. More than 48% of them are children.” said, Trevor Storrs Executive Director of Alaska Children’s Trust. “We need Senator Murkowski and Senator Sullivan more than ever to help protect our children by rejecting any health bill that ends the Medicaid expansion no matter the timing. Anything less would threaten the historic gains in health coverage and access to care that we as Alaskan’s have achieved under the expansion.”
 
Other proponents of the House bill have suggested that people who would lose expansion coverage could instead purchase private coverage on their own using the House bill’s tax credits. That is false, the new reports show. Low-income adults would face unaffordable premiums if the expansion were repealed, even after taking the House bill’s tax credits into account. For example, premiums after tax credits for Alaskans in poverty would equal or significantly exceed 72 percent of their income for 45-year olds and 188 percent for 60-year-olds. And that’s without taking into account provisions in the House bill that would let insurers go back to charging people with pre-existing conditions exorbitant premiums, stop covering critical services like mental health services and substance use treatment and imposing annual and lifetime limits.
 
“Tinkering around the edges of a bad bill won’t solve its fundamental flaws and Alaskan’s won’t be fooled by those who claim otherwise,” said André Horton, Director of Protect Our Care Alaska. “Senator Murkowski should continue to stand strong against partisan efforts to dramatically weaken, our health care system in Alaska. Alaska is like no other state.”[xyz-ihs snippet=”adversal-728×90″]

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