NYAPRS Note: Noted Medicaid advocacy group Families USA has released a state by states assessment of the impact of changes to Medicaid and Medicarethat have been proposed by Republican leaders, most notably the takedown of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
Here’s the one for New York….you can see all of the others if you go to http://familiesusa.org/product/defending-health-care-2017-what-stake-new-york?platform=hootsuite and look for the ‘states’ button.
Defending Health Care in 2017: What Is at Stake for New York
Families USA Fact Sheet December 2016
With a new president and Congress, the health care gains made throughout the last six years face their greatest threat yet. Congress has voted more than 60 times to roll back the historic progress that has been made to expand health coverage to millions of people in this country and to improve coverage for those who already had it. These proposed changes will put the health—and lives—of countless New Yorkers at risk. Here’s what New York stands to lose if the new president and Congress move forward to upend our health care system:
More than a million New Yorkers stand to lose health coverage
1.1 million New Yorkers stand to lose their health coverage.1
New York stands to lose $57 billion in federal funding for Medicaid, CHIP, and financial assistance for marketplace coverage.2Approximately 124,000 New Yorkers who currently get financial assistance to help pay for their health coverage will lose this help and will no longer have affordable coverage options. In 2016, New Yorkers receiving financial assistance saw their monthly premiums reduced on average $178 thanks to this help.3
The now-historically low rate of uninsured people will spike, with the number of uninsured in New York increasing 75 percent by 2019.4This will reverse the immense progress that has been made to expand coverage. Between 2013 and 2015:
- The number of uninsured in New York declined 34 percent5
- Working New Yorkers: The uninsured rate among working New Yorkers saw a 31 percent decline6
Repeal will end New York’s Medicaid expansion and cause ripple effects across the state economy
2.3 million stand to lose health coverage, most of whom are working.7The Medicaid expansion has extended health coverage to lower-income New Yorkers who hold down jobs that are the backbone of the state’s economy—from fast food workers to home care attendants to construction workers to cashiers. Repeal will leave these hard working New Yorkers out in the cold.
New York will lose billions in federal Medicaid funding.Over the course of a year and a half alone, Medicaid expansion brought 9.3 billion in federal dollars into the state economy.8The impact of that lost federal Medicaid funding will have a ripple effect throughout the state economy, affecting hospitals, other health care providers, and businesses.
New Yorkers with private health insurance will be stripped of vital protections against discrimination
Approximately 8.6 million New Yorkers with pre-existing conditions like asthma, diabetes, and cancer could once again be denied affordable, comprehensive coverage that actually covers their health care needs.9
New Yorkers will once again face a world where insurance plans routinely cap the most they will pay for someone’s health care in a year and in their lifetime, effectively cutting off coverage for the sickest individuals when they most need it.
- Roughly 6.4 million New Yorkers (including 1.6 million children) saw lifetime limits on coverage disappear thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s ban on these practices.10
Millions of New Yorkers will lose guaranteed coverage of free preventive services, like recommended cancer screenings and vaccines
Approximately 8.6 million New Yorkers with private health coverage (including 1.7 million children) and 3.3 million New York seniors on Medicare will lose guaranteed access to free preventive care, like blood pressure screenings, immunizations, and cancer screenings.11,12
Insurance companies will no longer be required to put New Yorkers’ premiums toward care, not profits
Insurers will no longer be held accountable for using people’s premium dollars on care and quality improvement or paying back the difference.
- New Yorkers have received around $98.4 million in refunds from plans that overcharged for premiums since the ACA took effect.13
Thousands of seniors and people with disabilities will lose comprehensive drug coverage
The Medicare donut hole will re-open. This will leave New York’s seniors and people with disabilities with a gap in prescription drug coverage and forced to pay thousands of dollars more in drug costs.
- Seniors and people with disabilities in New York have saved approximately $1.6 billion on drug costs thanks to the ACA’s closing the Medicare donut hole.14
- In 2015 alone, approximately 359,000 seniors and people with disabilities in New York saved on average $1,195 on drug costs.15
Endnotes
1Loss of coverage estimates are based on insurance coverage estimates for 2019 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and under partial repeal of the ACA through a January 2017 reconciliation bill. Linda J. Blumberg, Matthew Buettgens, and John Holahan, Implications of Partial Repeal of the ACA through Reconciliation (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, December 2016), available online at http://www.urban.org/research/publication/implications-partial-repeal-aca-through-reconciliation (last accessed Dec. 7, 2016).
2Estimates of lost federal assistance are based on estimates of federal spending on Medicaid/CHIP and Marketplace financial assistance from 2019 through 2028 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and under partial repeal of the ACA through a January 2017 reconciliation bill. Linda J. Blumberg, Matthew Buettgens, and John Holahan, Implications of Partial Repeal of the ACA through Reconciliation (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, December 2016), available online at http://www.urban.org/research/publication/implications-partial-repeal-aca-through-reconciliation (last accessed Dec. 7, 2016).
3Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, March 31, 2016 Effectuated Enrollment Snapshot, (Baltimore, MD: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, June 2016), available online at https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2016-Fact-sheets-items/2016-06-30.html (last accessed Dec. 6, 2016).
4Linda J. Blumberg, Matthew Buettgens, and John Holahan, Implications of Partial Repeal of the ACA through Reconciliation (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, December 2016), available online at http://www.urban.org/research/publication/implications-partial-repeal-aca-through-reconciliation (last accessed Dec. 7, 2016).
5Jessica C. Barrett, and Maria S. Vornovitsky, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2015, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, September 2016), available online at http://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-257.html (last accessed Dec. 6, 2016).
6Families USA Analysis of 2014-2016 Census Bureau American Community Survey Data
7Robin Rudowitz, Samantha Artiga and Katherine Young, What Coverage and Financing is at Risk Under a Repeal of the ACA Medicaid Expansion (Washington DC: The Kaiser Family Foundation, December 2016) available online at http://kff.org/report-section/what-coverage-and-financing-is-at-risk-under-a-repeal-of-the-aca-medicaid-expansion-appendix/ (last accessed Dec. 7, 2016).
8Id.
9White House, State by State Cost of Repeal Reports, (Washington, DC: White House), available online at https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/state_by_state_cost_of_repeal_report.pdf (last accessed Dec 6, 2016).
10Tomas D. Musco and Benjamin D. Sommers, Under the Affordable Care Act, 105 Million Americans No Longer Face Lifetime Limits on Health Benefits, (Washington, DC: Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, March 2012), available online at https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/under-affordable-care-act-105-million-americans-no-longer-face-lifetime-limits-health-benefits (last accessed Dec. 6, 2016).
11ASPE, ASPE Data Point: The Affordable Care Act is Improving Access to Preventive Services for Millions of Americans, (Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services, May 2015), available online at https://aspe.hhs.gov/pdf-report/affordable-care-act-improving-access-preventive-services-millions-americans (last accessed Dec. 6, 2016).
12Kaiser Family Foundation, Total Number of Medicare Beneficiaries: 2015, (Washington, DC: Kaiser Family Foundation), available online at http://kff.org/medicare/state-indicator/total-medicare-beneficiaries/ (last accessed Dec. 6, 2016).
13Families USA Analysis of 2012-2015 MLR Rebate Reports by State.
14Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Part D donut hole savings by state YTD 2015, (Baltimore, MD: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, August 2016), available online at https://downloads.cms.gov/files/Part%20D%20dount%20hole%20savings%20by%20state%20YTD%202015.pdf.
15Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Part D donut hole savings by state YTD 2015, (Baltimore, MD: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, August 2016), available online at https://downloads.cms.gov/files/Part%20D%20dount%20hole%20savings%20by%20state%20YTD%202015.pdf.
http://familiesusa.org/product/defending-health-care-2017-what-stake-new-york?platform=hootsuite