| Arizona health care professionals are sounding the alarm that Eli Crane’s health care cuts will “have devastating consequences” for both patients and providers.
This summer, Crane cast a key vote to gut Medicaid, a program nearly 1 in 3 of his own constituents rely on, to fund tax breaks for billionaires. More than 26,000 Arizonans in Crane’s district are expected to lose coverage, while thousands more could see their local hospitals shutter their doors due to a lack of funding.
Arizonans are now facing a “a one-two punch” of Medicaid cuts and rising Affordable Care Act premiums. Unless Congress acts, nearly 400,000 Arizonans could see their ACA premiums skyrocket up to 55% next year. Nearly 16,000 of Crane’s constituents are expected to forgo coverage because of higher ACA premiums.
Instead of working to find a solution to their manufactured health care crisis, Crane and his fellow Republicans shut down the government – and Arizona health care providers are calling him out for it.
Read for yourself…
Arizona Mirror: Arizona doctors blame GOP for blocking health care tax credit extension
- Arizona doctors are calling on the state’s Republican congressional delegation to support the extension of health care premium tax credits, saying that allowing them to expire will have devastating consequences for hospitals and patients alike.
- “Republicans in Congress have forced this government shutdown rather than work with Democrats to make health care affordable for their constituents, our patients,” she said.
- A September poll found that the vast majority of Americans want the subsidies extended beyond the Dec. 31 deadline. Of the people surveyed, 92% who identified as Democrat said they agreed the credits should be renewed and over half, about 59%, of Republicans said the same.
- Health care advocates warn that letting the program expire could cause premiums for everyone — not just those losing the tax credits — to spike at a time when they’re already expected to increase due, in part, to the Medicaid cuts.
- Premiums in Arizona are projected to skyrocket as much as 55% next year.
- “We cannot afford a one-two punch of Medicaid cuts and higher ACA premiums,” Koyama said.
- As the ability of millions of Americans to afford health care coverage is taken away, emergency rooms will become increasingly busy, increasing the cost of health care even for people with private insurance.
- That’s because the uncompensated care hospitals are required to provide in emergency rooms is made up for by charging insurance companies more for care, which in turn is passed on to people with insurance in the form of higher premiums.
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