For Immediate Release
August 24, 2017
Media Contact:
Ron Deutsch, Executive Director, FPI
518-469-6769
Cassidy-Graham Bill Would Deeply Cut Health Coverage Funding for New York
New York Faces Deepest Cuts of All States
(Albany, NY)— A new Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal bill would cut New York’s federal funding by $22 billion for health coverage by 2026, according to a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities based in Washington DC. New York would be the hardest-hit state, with an eye-popping estimated cut of 70 percent in 2026, relative to current law.
Congressional Republicans’ efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have failed in recent months, in large part because an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose taking coverage from millions of people, raising costs for millions more, gutting Medicaid and undermining consumer protections.
This has opened the door to another path: a transparent, bipartisan effort to strengthen our health care system without taking people’s coverage away or gutting Medicaid. The public supports this approach and the bipartisan Senate hearings, slated for September, offer a first step forward.
Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham are reportedly working with the White House to block this emerging, bipartisan path and instead are attempting to revive the ACA repeal effort by pushing their own version of a repeal bill, known as the Cassidy-Graham proposal.
“Despite claims to the contrary, the Cassidy-Graham plan is just another ACA repeal bill and would have the same devastating effects on New York as the previous, failed GOP repeal bills,” said Ron Deutsch, Executive Director of the Fiscal Policy Institute. “Like every other ACA repeal bill, it would take coverage from hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and tens of millions nationwide.”
The plan would eliminate the ACA Medicaid expansion, which covers over 600,000 New Yorkers. It would also eliminate tax credits that help many moderate-income New Yorkers afford marketplace coverage and subsidies that help low-income New Yorkers with out-of-pocket health costs, such as co-pays.
A far smaller block grant would replace both Medicaid expansion funding and marketplace subsidies, and the plan would also cap and deeply cut the rest of the Medicaid program just like previous Senate and House repeal bills. And, after 2026, the block grant would disappear entirely leaving New Yorkers high and dry.
“The public, experts across the political spectrum, and groups representing patients, hospitals, physicians, seniors, people with disabilities and others have forcefully and repeatedly rejected this misguided approach,” said Deutsch. “It’s time to focus on bipartisan solutions that strengthen – rather than weaken—our health care system.”
A full copy of the report can be found here
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For Immediate Release
August 24, 2017
Media Contact:
Ron Deutsch, Executive Director, FPI
518-469-6769
Cassidy-Graham Bill Would Deeply Cut Health Coverage Funding for New York
New York Faces Deepest Cuts of All States
(Albany, NY)— A new Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal bill would cut New York’s federal funding by $22 billion for health coverage by 2026, according to a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities based in Washington DC. New York would be the hardest-hit state, with an eye-popping estimated cut of 70 percent in 2026, relative to current law.
Congressional Republicans’ efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have failed in recent months, in large part because an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose taking coverage from millions of people, raising costs for millions more, gutting Medicaid and undermining consumer protections.
This has opened the door to another path: a transparent, bipartisan effort to strengthen our health care system without taking people’s coverage away or gutting Medicaid. The public supports this approach and the bipartisan Senate hearings, slated for September, offer a first step forward.
Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham are reportedly working with the White House to block this emerging, bipartisan path and instead are attempting to revive the ACA repeal effort by pushing their own version of a repeal bill, known as the Cassidy-Graham proposal.
“Despite claims to the contrary, the Cassidy-Graham plan is just another ACA repeal bill and would have the same devastating effects on New York as the previous, failed GOP repeal bills,” said Ron Deutsch, Executive Director of the Fiscal Policy Institute. “Like every other ACA repeal bill, it would take coverage from hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and tens of millions nationwide.”
The plan would eliminate the ACA Medicaid expansion, which covers over 600,000 New Yorkers. It would also eliminate tax credits that help many moderate-income New Yorkers afford marketplace coverage and subsidies that help low-income New Yorkers with out-of-pocket health costs, such as co-pays.
A far smaller block grant would replace both Medicaid expansion funding and marketplace subsidies, and the plan would also cap and deeply cut the rest of the Medicaid program just like previous Senate and House repeal bills. And, after 2026, the block grant would disappear entirely leaving New Yorkers high and dry.
“The public, experts across the political spectrum, and groups representing patients, hospitals, physicians, seniors, people with disabilities and others have forcefully and repeatedly rejected this misguided approach,” said Deutsch. “It’s time to focus on bipartisan solutions that strengthen – rather than weaken—our health care system.”
A full copy of the report can be found here