Statewide calls for healthcare solutions

As house and Senate efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have sparked an outcry across the state — and the nation. The U.S. Senate was enable to pass its bill, so far, leading healthcare advocates to see the light. But some in government remain committed to repeal of the ACA, and the fight over laws governing access to healthcare in the U.S. goes on. The Senate reconvenes in July to review its Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. But skepticism abounds regarding a law that gives a tax break of $54,000 to each millionaire while cuts to care are counted in the tens of millions of Americans.

NYSNA members joined in the protest — with religious, labor and consumer advocates, targeting Senators deemed vulnerable to re-election or otherwise considered amendable to stopping efforts to derail the ACA guarantees.

Dire projections

No wonder the objection to the latest House and Senate bills are widespread. The Center for American Progress crunch the numbers and found that between 18,100 and 27,700 Americans would be dead as a result of these bills. More than 20 million Americans would be added to the rolls of the uninsured — at a minimum — in the next decade if these bills become law.

Here in New York State, our Essential Plan, covering a range of critical healthcare services, would likely disappear, doing harm to 700,000. Medicaid cuts would reach into households across the state, as most families with an elderly relative in a nursing home relies upon Medicaid, as do large numbers of the disabled.

The end of subsidies to working Americans, those earning up to 200% of poverty, would effectively eliminate coverage for this category of our nation’s workforce. At the very time these working Americans had access to an affordable plan, it would be taken away if the legislation becomes law.

The BCRA harms our healthcare AND our jobs. Because New York has a generous Medicaid program this state is one of the hardest hit in terms of job loss. By 2026, the economy of NYS will have lost 132,000 jobs if this bill is passed, according to the highly respected Commonwealth Fund. Of those jobs lost, 81,000 will be in the healthcare sector.