House Health Care Vote Appalls Retirees and Older Americans

from “Alliance For Retired Americans”

May is Older Americans month, and Republicans spent the first week taking away health care. In a highly controversial and hurried vote, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), designed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed the House on Thursday afternoon and moved to the Senate for further consideration. The contested bill was narrowly approved, 217-213, and received no support from Democratic lawmakers. Twenty Republicans voted against the bill.

The bill contained many provisions that are harmful to both seniors’ health and retirement security. It allows massive tax cuts on the wealthy that will severely weaken the Medicare Trust Fund and will cut Medicaid’s funding by more than $800 billion. Under the bill, those with pre-existing conditions would no longer be guaranteed coverage without discrimination, as they are currently under the ACA. Among people ages 55 to 64, 84 percent had at least one pre-existing condition in 2014.

After the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office determined that a previous version of the bill would leave 24 million Americans uninsured in ten years, House leaders did not wait for a new CBO score for the amended AHCA and pushed ahead with a vote immediately.

"Trumpcare is a billionaires tax cut again disguised as a health care bill," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on the House floor Thursday, adding, "It's one of the largest transfers of wealth from working families to the rich in our country.”

The legislation now advances to a much more closely divided Senate, where its prospects are unknown. Many Senate Republicans are skeptical of the AHCA and find many of its provisions problematic.

“This bill is appalling for all Americans, but particularly for older Americans,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “We will fight this bill’s dangerous and discriminatory aspects in the Senate, and we will not forget it when we go to the polls in 2018.”

In a statement to the press, Alliance Executive Director Rich Fiesta stated, “Retirees and older Americans who are not yet eligible for Medicare are simply appalled… [i]t is difficult to say what the cruelest aspect of this vote is, but raiding Medicare and cutting Medicaid surely remain at the top of the list.”

“The $8 billion that the GOP added to their plan at the last minute is a mere drop in the bucket compared to their cuts,” Fiesta said, referring to the more than $800 billion the bill cuts from Medicaid.