Gov. Jay Inslee and Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, both Democrats, released today new data on what they say will be the dire consequences of a health care plan now moving through Congress.
The governor’s office says the uninsured rate will go from 5.8 percent to 15 percent in the state by 2024, with 600,000 lower-income people losing coverage they gained through the Medicaid expansion created by the Affordable Care Act, which this plan would repeal. Another 100,000 would be priced out of the insurance market.
Inslee’s office notes that the uninsured rate was 14 percent before the ACA went into effect, meaning that the Republican plan would actually make things worse in terms of people lacking coverage.
“If you thought a simple repeal of the ACA would be bad, this proposal is actually worse,” Inslee said in a statement.
Earlier this week the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report on the GOP-backed legislation, saying that 24 million people across the country could lose coverage by 2024, while the government could save billions of dollars. Those savings would be passed on to taxpayers, mostly those with the highest earnings.
On Monday, Kreidler told Seattle Weekly the bill was “a case of Robin Hood in reverse…robbing from the poor to give to the rich.”
However, he didn’t yet have exact figures on how the state would be impacted by the American Health Act, as the Republican bill is titled (Dems are calling it Trumpcare, of course).
Now those numbers are in. Republicans have disputed the CBO’s analysis of their health plan, and are sure to dispute Inslee and Kreidler’s figures as well. But here are all the ugly details, in a handy chart: