House Lawmakers Narrowly Pass ACA Repeal
- By: n4a
- On: 05/04/2017 14:31:17
- In: Policy & Advocacy
House leadership today secured the 217 votes they needed from Republican Members to pass the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which reverses many Affordable Care Act policies and protections and shifts the federal-state Medicaid program to a per-capita cap structure.
As n4a had detailed in many of our recent Legislative Updates and Advocacy Alerts, the health care provisions in AHCA will make coverage more expensive, and even cost-prohibitive, for many non-Medicare older adults. Additionally, by restructuring Medicaid, House Republicans voted to cut or shift to states nearly $840 billion in Medicaid costs over 10 years. n4a has opposed both versions of the AHCA, and in a recent statement, n4a CEO Sandy Markwood said today’s vote “represents a grave risk to millions of older adults, caregivers and people with disabilities.” AHCA now heads to the Senate where lawmakers have indicated they will either strip or modify many of the provisions in the House bill. However, timing on next steps remains unclear.