CramerCare Doesn’t Add Up to Same Health Care Protections As Current Law
(BISMARCK, ND) – In case you missed it, Politifact looked at why Republican health care proposals, such as the kind voted on and supported by Kevin Cramer, “are not as air tight as” the current health care law:
- The current guarantee. In the old days, insurance companies had ways to avoid selling policies to people who were likely to cost more than insurers wanted to spend. They might deny them coverage outright, or exclude coverage for a known condition, or charge so much that insurance became unaffordable. The Affordable Care Act boxes out the old insurance practices with a package of legal moves.
- Words vs. actions [… T]he protections in the GOP plans are not as strong as Obamacare. One independent analysis found that the [AHCA] left over 6 million people exposedt o much higher premiums for at least one year.
- [A] s things stand, the latest official move by the administration has been to agree that the guarantees in the Affordable Care Act should go. It said that in a Texas lawsuit tied to the individual mandate. […] In particular, they argued that with a toothless mandate, the judge should terminate protections for pre-existing conditions. […] So, if the mandate goes, so does guaranteed-issue.
- Latest Republican plan has holes. […] The legislation borrows words directly from the Affordable Care Act, saying insurers “may not establish rules for eligibility” based on health status, medical condition, claims experience or medical history. But there’s an out. The bill adds an option for companies to deny certain coverage if “it will not have the capacity to deliver services adequately.” To Allison Hoffman, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, that’s a big loophole. “Insurers could exclude someone’s preexisting conditions from coverage, even if they offered her a policy,” Hoffman said. “That fact alone sinks any claims that this law offers pre-existing condition protection.”
- [T]he bill also gives companies broad leeway in setting premiums. While they can’t set rates based on health status, there’s no limit on how much premiums could vary based on other factors.
- Past Republican plans also had holes. Whitlock said more broadly that Republicans have struggled at every point to say they are providing the same level of protection as in the Affordable Care Act. “And they are not,” Whitlock said. “It is 100 percent true that Republicans are not meeting the Affordable Care Act standard. And they are not trying to.”
Read the full report here.
Don’t forget, Cramer has attempted to rewrite his dangerous health care record, signing onto toothless resolutions that don’t actually provide protections for pre-existing conditions. He’s also misled North Dakotans about his record’s impacts, receiving “Three Pinocchios” for his false claim that the health care bill he voted for guarded against price discrimination for folks with pre-existing conditions.
WATCH more on Cramer’s empty health care promises here.
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