GOP schemes to sabotage Obamacare one more time before midterms

Republicans’ determination to tear health care away from even more Americans seems to know no bounds.

After at least 70 failed attempts to repeal Obamacare thus far, House Republicans are preparing to vote on yet another bill that would sabotage the popular Affordable Care Act, according to the Hill.

The changes will leave up to 1 million Americans without health insurance, Health Care Voter spokesperson Eduardo Silva said in a statement.

In addition to ripping health care away from families, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced that the Republican sabotage effort will cost more than $50 billion.

The Hill reports that the bill, deceptively called the Save America’s Workers Act, would delay the ACA’s employer mandate penalty, which took effect in 2015. The mandate covers companies with at least 100 workers.

Additionally, the bill would change the definition of a “full-time employee” to someone who works 40 hours a week, whereas the current requirement is 30 hours a week.

Critics of the bill note the changes to employment status will incentivize employers to create more part-time positions rather than full-time ones.

“By increasing the requirement to be considered a ‘full-time employee,’ Republicans have found yet another way to sabotage Americans’ health care and make it clear they remain obsessed with trying to increase the number of uninsured workers,” Silva said.

The bill follows a slew of other attempts by Republicans to weaken health care policy.

In 2017, Republicans in the House voted to gut Obamacare with a bill that would have caused 23 million people to lose access to health insurance, according to the CBO.

That sabotage effort included harmful provisions directed at individuals with pre-existing conditions, as well as older Americans.

According to Politifact, the GOP bill would have allowed insurance companies to “charge people significantly more if they had a pre-existing condition like heart disease, cancer, diabetes or arthritis — possibly requiring people to pay thousands of dollars extra every year to remain insured.”

Republicans also wanted to institute an “age tax,” according to the AARP, on people aged 50-64 who are too young for Medicare. The provision would have raised health care costs for these individuals by thousands of dollars per year.

Even though House Republicans celebrated this bill, it failed to pass the Senate.

Nevertheless, Republicans managed to sneak other provisions sabotaging the ACA into the unpopular tax scam bill.

As a direct result of those sabotage measures, as well as other sabotage efforts by the Trump administration, health care premiums are skyrocketing next year.

If Republicans had left the ACA alone, a study shows premiums would have dropped next year instead.

Health care is top of mind for voters across the country as the 2018 midterms approach, according to polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And the upcoming House vote will put health care policy back in the spotlight less than two months before the election.

“This desperate attempt to repeal our health care won’t go unnoticed by the millions of health care voters mobilizing across the country,” said Silva. “The American people won’t stand for these relentless attacks on our care, and the GOP should be ready to be held accountable come Election Day.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.