The New House Health Care Plan Makes a Bad Bill Even Worse

Apr 27, 2017

By MBPC Staff

While Montana still is without a congressional representative, the House is poised to vote on a bill tomorrow, which could result in 259,000 Montanans either losing their coverage or facing increased out-of-pocket costs for health insurance.

Press reports have indicated House leadership continues to try to cobble together votes to repeal ACA, and we could see a vote on a newer version of the GOP plan as early as tomorrow or Saturday. The revised version does nothing to address the 24 million Americans who will lose coverage or the cut of over $800 billion in federal Medicaid dollars. Instead, the amended GOP plan makes a bad bill even worse, in three ways:

• Gutting protections for Montanans with pre-existing conditions: The new proposal would allow states to eliminate protections for those with pre-existing condition. Insurance companies would now have the power to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions except in states that choose to prohibit it. 426,400 Montanans have pre-existing conditions and risk losing the coverage they desperately need.

• Eliminating coverage for services, like maternity care, mental and substance use treatment, and prescription drugs: The new version of the GOP plan would also allow states to waive Essential Health Benefits standards that require plans to cover services such as mental health and substance use treatment. It would also do away with guaranteed maternity care coverage, effectively allowing plans to charge women more for insurance than men.

• Reinstate annual and lifetime limits on health care: The ACA prohibits plans from limits on coverage that are Essential Health Benefits. If states are allowed to eliminate the Essential Health Benefit standards, plans could likely place caps on coverage for those services, such as emergency services, impatient care, and prescription drugs. Before ACA, over 330,000 Montanans – most with employer coverage – faced lifetime limits on health services. The new, worse GOP plan could put in place these same practices, which means even those Montanans who can afford coverage could be one major illness away from bankruptcy.

This new bill is in no way a compromise or an improvement. Instead, it only further exacerbates the problems it would create for millions of Americans. This flawed proposal would: shift of over $3 billion in Medicaid costs to the state, end Montana’s bipartisan plan to expand Medicaid covering over 71,000 Montanans, and raise premiums and health care costs on tens of thousands of Montana families. D.C. politicians must take note – the GOP plan is a dangerous move that is wrong for Montana.