Improve, don’t repeal, ACA
The Republican promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) with something better has never made sense. Given the conservative Republican principle to reduce government spending, any Republican plan could not cover all Americans as Republicans have promised.
The ACA paid for expanded coverage through additional taxes on the highest-income earners (couples making $250,000/year and singles earning $200,000). Increased taxes on the wealthy are also anathema to conservative Republicans.
The last Republican Senate bill repealed those tax increases and severely curtailed Medicaid spending, which will cause more than half a million Kentuckians to lose their coverage.
The repeal and replacement of the ACA was simply a campaign slogan accompanied by false, partisan claims that Obamacare is a disaster and harmful to its beneficiaries.
It is true that some premiums have increased, in some cases steeply, for some in the insurance market. But now, due to Republican efforts to repeal the ACA, these markets are even less stable because insurers are not sure what the future holds.
The best plan for Americans is to improve the ACA and abandon partisan claims that don’t stand up to scrutiny.
Betsy Neale
Lexington
This story was originally published August 23, 2017 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Improve, don’t repeal, ACA."