Instead of focusing on improving health care delivery in rural America, House Republicans passed a bill that will only make it harder to access affordable, quality health services in rural communities across the country. Here’s a list of 10 ways that TrumpCare will have a damaging impact on rural America:
1) Increases number of uninsured. About 2.9 million rural Americans could lose health care by 2020, including many of the 1.7 million that gained coverage through Medicaid expansion.
2) Strips $839 billion from Medicaid. Over the next ten years, TrumpCare will unduly hurt rural hospitals, which rely on Medicaid for 11 percent of their payments.
3) Ends pre-existing conditions protections. For the 20 million rural Americans with a pre-existing condition, TrumpCare risks a spike in costs or losing coverage altogether.
4) Destabilizes individual marketplaces. By replacing need-based tax credits with less-generous flat credits, TrumpCare threatens coverage for the 15 percent of rural Americans that get coverage through the exchanges.
5) Undermines consumer and industry confidence. By sending the health insurance market into turmoil, TrumpCare will drive up insurance rates and chase insurance companies out of the market altogether.
6) Threatens rural hospital closures. Uninsurance spikes, Medicaid cuts, plus other marketplace uncertainty threaten rural hospitals, that are already struggling to keep their doors open—673 rural hospitals, employing nearly 100,000 workers, are already at risk of closure.
7) Undermines fight against the opioid epidemic. This epidemic is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. Heavily rural states such as New Mexico, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Kentucky are some of the hardest hit by the epidemic.
8) Reduces improvements for mental health care. TrumpCare risks treatment for the 6 million rural Americans that experience a mental health issue.
9) Eliminates consumer protections. TrumpCare removes protections that help provide affordable, quality plans for rural Americans—including requiring that insurers cover essential health benefits and limiting out-of-pocket spending on those benefits.
10) Excludes the ACA’s geographic adjustment. TrumpCare fails to adjust tax credits for local costs, putting a higher burden on Americans in areas where health care costs are higher—such as in rural America where low population density drives up the costs of health care.
Click here to view the document online.
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For more information, please contact Latoya Veal at Latoya_Veal@jec.senate.gov or 202-224-0379.
