GOP Healthcare Bill Would Be a Disaster for Women & Families

Following the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score which predicted it would cause more than 24 million Americans to lose health coverage over the next decade, WAWH and other women’s health advocacy groups from around the country are urging Congressional leaders to reject the proposed American Health Care Act.

Women live in poverty at higher rates than men, earn less in full-time jobs and are less likely to have employer-sponsored insurance in their own names, the groups noted. This is especially true for women of color. For women, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for purchase of private insurance and the expansion of Medicaid coverage have provided not only health benefits, but also much greater financial independence and stability.

By contrast, the repeal bill would:

• Provide skimpy subsidies, while allowing insurance companies to charge older Americans five times more than younger ones. The CBO predicts that it will “substantially rais[e] premiums for older people.” Women in their 50s and 60s who lose coverage through divorce or widowhood will be hard pressed to find affordable coverage.
• Allow insurance companies to shift more out-of-pocket costs onto women who cannot afford them. The CBO noted that “lower-income people’s share of medical services paid in the form of deductibles and other cost sharing would increase.”
• Prompt employers to drop coverage. The bill would eliminate tax credits that help small businesses provide coverage and repeal the mandate that large employers do so. By 2026, CBO reports, 7 million “fewer people, on net, would enroll in employment-based coverage” and “over time, fewer employers would offer health insurance to their workers.”
• Prevent millions of low-income women from looking to Medicaid for help. The CBO predicts that more than two-thirds of those who gained coverage through Medicaid expansion will lose their eligibility within just two years of implementation of the repeal bill. The bill also radically changes original Medicaid, capping and ratcheting down federal support so that it provides less and less help each year. The bill would tie states’ hands, forcing states to cut benefits or drop children, pregnant women, disabled people and seniors from coverage.
• Prevent women from being able to use their public health insurance, such as Medicaid, at Planned Parenthood, which would be barred from receiving federal funds. Planned Parenthood is often the only women’s health provider in rural and other underserved areas. CBO reported that “The people most likely to experience reduced access to care would probably reside in areas without other health care clinics or medical practitioners who serve low-income populations.”

The bill uses these deep cuts to the health care of vulnerable women and their families in order to fund tax cuts for the very wealthy, the women’s groups said. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the bill provides an average $7 million tax cut to each of the 400 richest households in America.

We strongly urge the House to reject this and any other bill that would roll back the coverage gains made by women under the ACA.