Repeal of the Affordable Care Act would cause havoc to insurance markets and marketplace coverage options.
Under these dire economic conditions, dismantling the Affordable Care Act would be devastating for both financial security and health. Cutting it would exacerbate rising costs while widening disparities in accessing care – compounded further by worsening racial disparities.
What is the ACA?
The Affordable Care Act has eased health and financial strain for millions of Americans. By paying individual insurance bills and expanding Medicaid coverage, this legislation also benefits our economy and supports jobs creation. If repeal were to occur, however, accessing health care would become even harder, while over 1.2 million jobs could be lost as a result.
In states across the nation, the Affordable Care Act has provided new coverage options to individuals with preexisting conditions who were once denied coverage or charged higher premiums; without its protections they could once more become targets.
Republican politicians have made numerous promises to repeal the ACA, yet their ability to avoid policy tradeoffs remains the same as what Democrats could not. With elections around the corner, candidates haven’t focused as heavily on repealing it as in 2016. Instead, they’re promising constituents how they’ll improve and expand coverage options – something to bear in mind before supporting a candidate.
How can it be repealed?
The Affordable Care Act was passed with support from both Democrats and independents, though after Senator Ted Kennedy died Democratic leaders decided to use budget reconciliation, which requires only 51 votes in the Senate as opposed to 60-seat supermajorities to pass laws.
The Trump Administration and Republican state attorneys general have filed numerous lawsuits in order to derail the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Should it succeed in dismantling it altogether, millions of Americans would lose health coverage while premiums would soar; such an outcome is particularly hazardous during a pandemic when people need access to care services.
If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, preexisting conditions could be used as grounds to deny or charge individuals higher premiums, especially communities of color who are more likely to have these conditions. This violates basic principles of fairness and due process while undermining a fundamental constitutional limit on Congress and Executive branch interference with private contracts between individuals and their insurers, doctors, hospitals or other providers.
What are the consequences of repealing the ACA?
Repeal of the Affordable Care Act would reverse these gains for millions. Repealing would require Congress and White House action that reverses all its gains – this would include eliminating its individual mandate, ending Medicaid expansion, taking away premium tax credits/cost-sharing subsidies in marketplaces, etc. A report released by Brookings Institution and USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics projects 20 million Americans would lose coverage as a result.
People living with preexisting conditions could face especially dire economic hardship as a result of losing coverage, as price increases, coverage denial and stringent annual or lifetime limits become available to them.
Should the Trump administration replace retiring Justice Ginsburg with someone who opposes the Affordable Care Act (ACA), budget reconciliation could allow for passage of legislation repealing its coverage provisions while keeping in place its market reforms without needing 60 votes to break a filibuster.
What are the alternatives to repealing the ACA?
Many supporters of repeal believe that government involvement should not be in health care decisions, citing how insurance markets would become self-leveling and competitive, with consumers having more choices in health plans available to them. They believe removing government from health care decisions would bring down healthcare costs as consumers would enjoy more choice in coverage options and costs would decrease accordingly.
However, other people oppose repeal because they recognize that the Affordable Care Act has achieved many positive goals. For example, it has helped decrease uninsured rates in America while simultaneously decreasing drug costs by closing Medicare Part D coverage gaps such as “donut holes” and providing discounts on certain prescription drugs.
Additionally, the ACA has ensured that people with preexisting conditions such as COVID-19 do not face being denied coverage or charged more for health care services based on these preexisting conditions – helping over 100 million individuals. Should a Supreme Court decide to strike down this protections of health care access could end abruptly.
