Should the Affordable Care Act be repealed, many experts have determined that the resulting impacts could be highly disadvantageous for the insured and uninsured alike in more ways than one. Repealing the ACA would pose the greatest potential threat to individuals of low income by greatly reducing their ability to receive coverage under new federal and state terms.
The following are some of the ways that the prospective bill to repeal healthcare has been described as capable of damaging the welfare of those who depend on Medicaid.
Diminished Federal Spending and Lower Enrollment
Should ACA be repealed, federal spending on Medicaid would be projected to drop by hundreds of billions in the following decade. In the place of Medicaid expansion would be a state-based per-capita system. With a per-capita system in place enrollment would decline sharply. Experts with the Congressional budget office have calculated that the potential drop in enrollment could be as high as 14 million over the next 10 years.
Unlimited Potential for Higher Premium Costs
Repealing the current ACA terms would remove the current limitation that states have to prevent exorbitant premium charges. With this limitation removed, even currently-insured citizens would be far less capable, if not completely unable, to match the rising premiums of their policies.
Higher Incentive for Unethical State Fund Allocation
The amount of available capital to invest in federal and state Medicaid spending would decrease substantially. The allocation of what little available funds there are to invest in Medicaid for short-term savings instead could potentially increase.
With unrestricted flexibility to use federal funds for priorities such as tax cuts, states would be able to legally disregard the welfare of those in need of healthcare by cutting the public’s accessibility to benefits for higher federal fund carryover.
Inadequate Funding to Meet Rising Healthcare Costs
Even those who are able to remain insured by Medicaid under a block grant system could be subject to disadvantages in terms of the timeliness of their access to healthcare. The responsibility to leverage additional healthcare cost would be entirely left to states with no incentive to do so. So those who become unemployed or uninsured in said states would have no hope for any increase in funding to help them. The cost of healthcare would increase, but the funding to provide it would become increasingly inadequate.
Inflated Work Requirements
A common misconception is that the majority of health insurance beneficiaries who struggle with premiums willfully choose not to work. On the contrary, many insured policyholders Medicaid are currently employed and yet still struggle to meet premium costs.
By giving states the ability to greatly increase work requirements for eligibility, working-class families using the maximum amount of time available to subsist would be uninsured. Or they would be prohibited from applying altogether. Eligible adults who are between jobs would be especially less likely to receive coverage.
Conclusion
- Various conditions under the current ACA model have already been well-documented as relatively disadvantageous for low income citizens in a variety of ways. However, if it is repealed, these disadvantages could deepen dramatically. may face even more daunting blockades to receiving vital healthcare. Those who may face even more daunting blockades to receiving vital healthcare are:
- Children
- seniors
- disabled adults
- working class families
- eligible adults unable to meet steep work requirements
Adult beneficiaries who do not meet any pre-established criteria for disability or pregnancy would be subject to highly difficult work requirement impositions to be considered eligible for care. Without being able to meet the work requirements or satisfy the criteria for either disability, pregnancy or old age, many adult beneficiaries would be left with little to no choice but to give up on enrolling altogether.
Adult beneficiaries without qualifying conditions but unsatisfactory work status be far less likely to have their eligibility approved. States looking for short-term savings would be given the ability to entirely do away with any ACA Medicaid expansion enrollment. Under these conditions, millions of people who depend on Medicaid would be left uninsured and practically stranded without health coverage.
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