We are faced with a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease that is disrupting economic activity. Businesses are closed, and employees are out of work. This is negatively impacting their employer-based health plans. The Republican plan to help people without health insurance is a “phenomenal plan” that has yet, after 10 years, to be determined. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s 2020 budget (which Chris Jacobs supports) calls for cuts to the Affordable Care Act and cuts to C.D.C.
The American Public Health Association Executive Director, Georges Benjamin, MD, stated: “This budget, put simply, is a disinvestment in the health of Americans.”
The New York Times reported 7/14/20, “The coronavirus pandemic stripped an estimated 5.4 million American worker of their health insurance between February and May, a stretch in which more adults became uninsured because of job losses that have ever lost coverage in a single year, according to a new analysis.”
Before the ACA, insurance companies routinely denied coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Business Insider (March 4, 2020), reported: “A study conducted by the American Journal of Public Health in 2009 found that 66.5% of the 1.4 million bankruptcies in the U.S. are related to medical issues.”
Approximately 487,000 people signed up for the ACA after the open enrollment period ended in December, according to The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, mostly in April and May of this year, which suggests the surge in enrollment was linked to layoffs due to coronavirus pandemic.
Yet, the “phenomenal fantastic plan” of the Republicans is yet to be determined. Now, with a healthcare crisis, cutting healthcare as the Republicans (and Congressman Chris Jacobs) are proposing, leaving millions without insurance, is the wrong course of action.
