A loophole in the health care bill passed by House Republicans on Thursday could put the care that 7 million military veterans rely on at risk.<\/b>
\nThe health care bill that Republicans in the House of Representatives passed this week could strip 7 million veterans of tax credits and place many of them in high-risk pools by classifying post-traumatic stress disorder as a pre-existing condition.
Democrats seized on those possible effects to slam Republicans, saying they had voted for a bill that would, if it became law, end up punishing millions of veterans, a group that President Donald Trump fervently vowed to support during his campaign.
\u201cThis is not fear mongering, This is not hyperbole, \u201d said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., who is a member of the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee. \u201cThis bill jeopardizes health care for up to 7 million veterans, and everyone should oppose it.\u201d
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a veteran who lost both of her legs in the Iraq War, called it \u201cstunning\u201d that Republicans would make it harder for veterans to afford health care.
The House passed the American Health Care Act on Thursday by a narrow 217-213 vote and sent it to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. The complaints of veterans are unlikely to help its chances of ultimate approval.
The bill offers Americans tax credits that they can use to buy private insurance \u2013 as long as they are not eligible for other low-cost government health care options. That\u2019s the catch for veterans, who are eligible for medical care offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
That means that an estimated 7 million veterans who qualify for VA health care benefits but elect not to take them would be ineligible for the tax credits.
Republicans argued during debate on the bill that Internal Revenue Service rules would exempt veterans from the tax-credit limits. But it\u2019s unclear whether those rules would apply, since they were drawn for the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, which the House bill ostensibly repeals.
Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., who chairs the House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs, insisted on the House floor Thursday that \u201cnothing in this bill changes how veterans are treated under the law. Nothing.\u201d
But Roe acknowledged that a provision that had been inserted to exempt veterans had to be removed because it violated the reconciliation rules that Senate leaders intend to impose to allow the bill to be passed by a simple majority, not the 60 votes that ordinarily would be required. Those rules require that a bill considered under reconciliation may deal only with spending and not policy.
\u201cHow did an ostensibly \u2018technical\u2019 amendment end up withdrawing refundable tax credits from up to 7 million veterans?\u201d asked Chris Jacobs, a policy analyst who previously worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation and was a policy adviser to the House Republican Conference. \u201cDoes Donald Trump \u2013 who released a specific plan early in his campaign to \u2018ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever they need it\u2019 \u2013 realize the potentially broad-ranging effects of this \u2018technical\u2019 amendment on veterans?\u201d
If the Senate does not close this loophole, veterans who are currently able to use tax credits to pay for health care would be forced to go through the notoriously backlogged VA.
Veterans also express dismay that the bill would cut $880 billion from Medicaid, which they argue is used by thousands of veterans. Paralyzed Veterans of America called the bill \u201cparticularly devastating to people with disabilities.\u201d
The bill also would eliminate the federal match for the Community First Choice Option under Medicaid, through which \u201cmany poor veterans with serious non-service-connected disabilities have been able to move from nursing homes into their communities, \u201d the group wrote in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
House passage of the bill came as a new report shows military veterans as a group saw dramatic gains in health care coverage under President Barack Obama\u2019s Affordable Care Act.
The rate of uninsured veterans under age 65 fell by nearly 40 percent during the first two years of Obamacare\u2019s coverage provisions, a study by the Urban Institute think tank found.
The number of veterans who did not have health care coverage fell from 980,000 in 2013 to 552,000 in 2015. Most uninsured veterans in that category had incomes that made them eligible for either the Medicaid expansion or subsidies under Obamacare.
Veterans\u2019 families also gained from the Affordable Care Act, the study shows. The rate of spouses of military veterans without insurance fell from 9.2 percent to 5.5 percent, and the rate among children dropped from 4.5 percent to 2.9 percent.
\u201cIt\u2019s common knowledge that veterans suffer from very unique health care needs, including PTSD and musculoskeletal disorders, and that\u2019s the kind of long-term services that Medicaid provides, \u201d said Andrea Callow, a Medicaid policy analyst at the consumer group Families USA. \u201cWe know that hundreds of thousands of them are enrolled in the Medicaid program, as well as their families, so when you cut the program the way that AHCA does . you\u2019 re going to get veterans who get hit by it.\u201d
Many veterans joined a Twitter campaign Friday opposing the bill, using the hashtag #IAmAPreexistingCondition. Many said they were especially concerned about post-traumatic stress disorder being classified as a pre-existing condition, a change that would make their health care more expensive.
\u201c#IAmAPreexistingCondition and so is every other veteran, \u201d tweeted one user.
\u201cI am a disabled veteran that suffers from depression a condition on the list! Didn\u2019 t Trump promise 2 care 4 us?\u201d asked another .
The new plan would alter prohibitions in the Affordable Care Act that barred insurers from charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing health problems.
\u201cIn terms of PTSD the risks are real, just as for all pre-existing conditions under the bill, \u201d said Judith Solomon, vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. \u201cIt\u2019s not only that people may have to pay more, it\u2019s also with a waiver of essential health benefits the treatment they need may not be available regardless of whether they can purchase the coverage.\u201d
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect title and party affiliation for Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. She is a Democrat.<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 11<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -0.1<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

TW posts: 1<\/div>\n

TW reposts: 1<\/div>\n

TW likes: 0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n