- Obamacare Repeal Legislation Could Bring "Junk Insurance" to Millions McClatchy by Tony Pugh—If certain parts of the House Republican health care bill become law, states that opt out of Obamacare protections could see an explosion of "junk insurance" in their individual markets—which could leave millions of people with very little coverage. Such plans often can be dirt-cheap, but they offer so few benefits that the recent Congressional Budget Office score on the Republicans' American Health Care Act said such coverage basically amounted to no coverage at all. Junk insurance can include several types of health care coverage: limited-benefit, specified disease plans that cover only certain diseases; supplemental plans that cover only the expenses another policy doesn't; and fixed-dollar indemnity plans that provide a specified amount per day toward medical costs.
- The GOP's Proposed Medicaid Cuts Could Leave Millions of Women Uninsured ABC News by Pryia Raja—The Republican health care bill currently making its way through Congress could have a major impact on how many people have access to health services through Medicaid—changes that would fall disproportionately on women. Today, more than 17 million women in the U.S. aged 18 to 64 have health insurance because of Medicaid, according to data from the National Women's Law Center. Nearly a fourth of these women gained access to health insurance for the first time as a result of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that passed in 2010. Just within the first two years of expansion, nearly four million women were newly insured through Medicaid between 2013 and 2015—women who are now at risk of losing health care coverage.
- First, Do Some Harm—Before Republicans Replace Obamacare, The White House Is Killing It The Economist—Eighteen million Americans buy insurance on the individual market. It may collapse—whether or not their bid to reform health care succeeds, Republicans think Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will founder. For years, critics of the law have said that its health-insurance markets will enter a "death spiral" in which rising premiums drive out healthy buyers, forcing premiums higher still. "Obamacare is absolutely dead," President Donald Trump told The Economist on May 4th. If he is right, calamity looms. Mr Trump thinks its collapse would force Democrats to join his reform effort. And he is putting his money where his mouth is. Indeed, his administration is part of the problem.
- Neediest Texans Could Lose Billions in Medicaid Coverage Under Trump Budget, Obamacare Overhaul Dallas Morning News by Katie Leslie—President Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to leave Medicaid untouched. But in his first major budget proposal, the president has laid out a plan to reduce Medicaid spending by more than $600 billion over the next decade. Coupled with the Obamacare overhaul House Republicans passed in May, which would reduce Medicaid spending by more than $830 billion over the same period, Texas could lose billions in coverage, with its neediest feeling the pain. Millions of low-income children in the state, as well as seniors and people with disabilities, will bear the brunt of those reductions if they come to pass, warned Anne Dunkelberg, a former Texas Medicaid official with the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities.