ICYMI: Politifact rates Pittenger claim “MOSTLY FALSE” on Republican Repeal Bill protections for pre-existing conditions
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
“Not only did Robert Pittenger vote to strip healthcare away from tens of thousands of his own constituents, he lied to them about what the Republican repeal and ripoff plan vote would do,” said Cole Leiter DCCC spokesperson. “Here’s the truth, his party’s bill will make it more difficult for folks living with asthma, diabetes, and cancer- and even pregnant moms- to stay healthy. Shame on Robert Pittenger for putting his party before his constituents, and shame on him for lying to them about it.”
Charlotte Observer – Politifact: Does New Version of the AHCA protect coverage for pre-existing conditions?
By Will Doran
May 4, 2017
One of the key sticking points over U.S. House Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace Obamacare is what will happen to people with pre-existing health conditions if this new plan passes.
North Carolina Republican Rep. Robert Pittenger supports the bill. He said Tuesday that people still would be able to buy health insurance even if they already have cancer, heart disease, diabetes or some other type of health issue.
One of the biggest changes in the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was a requirement that insurers cannot reject people on the basis of pre-existing conditions or charge them exorbitant rates for their premiums.
“The American Health Care Act absolutely does not eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions,” Pittenger said.
However, that is misleading.
It’s an issue that affects many people, too. According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, more than one in four Americans between 18 and 64 has a pre-existing condition – including more than 1.6 million people in Pittenger’s state of North Carolina.
Of those, 86,000 North Carolinians with pre-existing conditions buy their insurance through the Obamacare marketplace, according to Avalere, a Washington, D.C, health care consulting company – as do nearly 2.3 million people nationwide.
Weakening current protections
The AHCA does keep the requirement that people with pre-existing conditions must be offered health insurance. But it would drop Obamacare’s rules capping how much extra those people can be charged.
So it appears people wouldn’t pay wildly different rates due only to their gender, which is also the case under Obamacare. But by contrast, insurers would only have to provide access to coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. It says nothing about the rates of that coverage.
That means if the AHCA passes, it would allow for people with pre-existing conditions to be charged more per year for their insurance coverage – possibly to the tune of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars more per year, some studies have found.
The exact amount might differ regionally, since some states might not allow the higher rates.
Pittenger said that if the AHCA passes and people want better health insurance, they could move to a different state.
How the changes work
Matt Fiedler, a health care analyst for the Brookings Institute, said the AHCA would force people with a pre-existing condition to choose between two different pools of insurance coverage, both with “a very high premium.”
“In either case, people with serious health conditions would lack access to affordable insurance options,” he said.
The AARP opposes the AHCA for that reason.
So does the nation’s largest group of doctors, the American Medical Association, which said the AHCA will do “serious harm to patients and the health care delivery system.”
Our ruling
Pittenger said that the Republican AHCA health care plan “does not eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions.”
While insurers technically would still be required to offer coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, the AHCA would weaken protections for those people.
Insurers would be able 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.
We rate this claim Mostly False.
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