Statement on the American Health Care Act, by Joe Baker, President of the Medicare Rights Center  

New York, NY—There’s no late night wheeling and dealing that will fix the American Health Care Act (AHCA).

From the beginning, the AHCA has amounted to little more than a backroom deal, intended to undercut access to health coverage for the families, older adults, and people with disabilities who need it most. The bill’s latest tweaks have been no different. In fact, they only manage to make a harmful bill that much worse.

The AHCA would yank coverage out from under 24 million Americans, impose an unaffordable “age tax” on older Americans, end Medicaid as we know it, and undermine the Medicare guarantee. Not only that, the latest bill leaves people with pre-existing conditions out in the cold—and a paltry fund for high-risk patients will not change this.

The AHCA puts access to needed care at risk for every older adult, person with a disability, and American family, especially as our society ages and becomes increasingly reliant on Medicare and Medicaid. We stand with the American people, who overwhelmingly oppose this bill. We urge members of Congress to do the same and to abandon this harmful legislation once and for all.

For more information on the Medicare program and proposals under consideration by Congress to change it, visit the Medicare Rights Center’s “Protect and Strengthen” webpage at www.medicarerights.org/protect.

Press Contact: Mitchell Clark – mclark@medicarerights.org

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