President Barack Obama is applauded after signing the Affordable Care Act into law at the White House on March 23, 2010. — AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File
President Joe Biden marked the 13th anniversary Thursday of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the signature domestic achievement of President Barack Obama.
Biden was the vice president when Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010.
The ACA led to a historic advancement in health equity in the United States.
Before the law was passed, insurance companies could deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions such as diabetes, cancer and other ailments.
The ACA prohibited this practice by mandating that insurance companies sell plans to anyone who wants them, and by requiring that people in similar age groups and geographic regions pay similar costs.
Because of the ACA, millions of Americans now have affordable and accessible health insurance. More Americans now have insurance, and insurance companies that were refusing to insure people who had preexisting conditions can no longer do so.
For years, Republicans in Congress fought unsuccessfully to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
Republicans were able to end the ACA’s individual mandate but were unable to fully repeal the law and come up with a replacement.
However, Biden warned on Thursday that the now-popular program could be jeopardized by proposed Republican spending cuts.
The White House sent out 51 fact sheets (one for each state plus one for the District of Columbia) detailing “devastating consequences of MAGA House Republican plans to gut Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.”
The White House analysis draws from a plan issued by the Center for Renewing America, an organization led by Russell Vought, a budget director during the Trump administration, who has been advising House Republican leadership in recent months.
According to the analysis, the GOP plan would increase health care costs for Pennsylvania families.
Under congressional Republican plans, “325,000 people in Pennsylvania who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act will see their premiums go up by an average of $6,300,” according to the White House analysis.
“At least 2.1 million people in Pennsylvania with pre-existing health conditions could lose critical protections. Before the ACA, at least 2.1 million Pennsylvanians with pre-existing health conditions could have been denied coverage or charged more if they tried to buy individual market health insurance. Republican repeal proposals either eliminate these protections outright or find other ways to gut them.”
The White House estimates that “1.5 million Pennsylvanians were in jeopardy of losing their health insurance coverage.”
“An additional 2.3 million Pennsylvania residents with Medicaid, including children, could lose critical services, or could even lose coverage altogether,” the White House said. “Slashing federal funding for Medicaid would force states to make Medicaid eligibility changes that would make it harder to qualify for and enroll in Medicaid coverage, cut critical services and cut payments rates, making it harder for people with Medicaid to access care.”
The ACA, while imperfect, has successfully expanded health care coverage for millions of Americans. Lawmakers must vigorously resist any attempt to gut Medicaid or reduce the number of Pennsylvanians with access to health insurance.
Reprinted from The Philadelphia Tribune
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