ANOTHER LEAK – The Draft Version Of The ‘Deplorable Care Act’ Has Escaped Congress (VIDEO)

The leaky ship of state has struck again.

Somehow a 105 page draft version of the Republicans’ plan has been leaked into the hands of the media and is making the rounds of health care experts.

One such expert is Ron Pollack of Families USA. He said:

“This leaked Republican proposal, if enacted, would put us on a destructive path that would decimate the safety-net Medicaid program for over 72 million people; drastically reduce premium subsidies for working families; and cause out-of-pocket health costs to soar.”

NBC News reports that the draft is a working document, and changes may very well be made. But one aide to an unnamed House Republican said:

“This is the bones of what’s going to happen.”

The plan is far from the “immediate repeal and replace” that was promised during the campaign. It will take the next several years to slowly roll back some of the key components of the Affordable Care Act.

The plan would undo both the employer mandate to provide insurance and the individual mandate to buy it. Although the GOP draft doesn’t eliminate the mandates, it does phase out the penalties. Which means that employers still have to provide insurance to their workers, but the government will ignore it if they don’t.

One has to wonder why they didn’t just eliminate the mandate.

The draft plan completely defunds Planned Parenthood. This is unfortunately one of the few GOP promises kept. Huge numbers of poor women would immediately lose preventative care, including contraceptive care, as soon as the Republicans put their plan in place.

Cutting contraceptive care would obviously lead to an increase in unplanned pregnancies, and therefore an increase in abortion. The exact opposite of what the Republicans claim to want.

The GOP plan would also cut the expansion of Medicaid that was a part of the ACA. This again means a loss of coverage for many people. The plan proposes to cap the number of people who can receive Medicaid in each state, based on population.

Does this make sense? The poorer states will surely lose out with this idea. TalkPoverty.org reports that in Connecticut, around 10 percent of the people live below the poverty line. In Mississippi, the rate is a whopping 22 percent. A population based cap would obviously hurt the poorest people in the poorest states.

The draft plan proposes to eliminate the federal subsidy that now allows low income people to buy insurance for themselves and their families.

Instead the Republican plan would provide tax credits, paid monthly, to help offset the cost of insurance. And people would be allowed to save money for their health care needs through Health Savings Accounts, one of the GOP’s favorite ideas.

Under the proposed plan, each state would have a “high risk” pool who need access to insurance. The government would provide financial help to these high risk pools of poor people in each state. However, the plan reduces that help over time, leaving states and individuals to struggle with providing coverage.

Finally, the GOP plan does not include guaranteed coverage for preexisting conditions, one of the most popular parts of the ACA.

You can read the document for yourself right here if you are so inclined. Based on media reports, it looks like the GOP plan is not immediate, doesn’t fully repeal Obamacare, and doesn’t actually replace the whole thing.

It’s more like a surgical procedure that slices and dices coverage in a way that won’t touch the rich, but will once again leave the poor and vulnerable with no way to protect themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM5QaGRqnOk

Featured image by abbamouse via Flickr. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 

Karen is a retired elementary school teacher with many years of progressive activism behind her. She is the proud mother of three young adults who were all arrested with Occupy Wall Street. To see what she writes about in her spare time, check out her blog at "Empty Nest, Full Life"