Even before the Congressional Budget Office reported that the House repeal of the Affordable Care Act would leave 23 million more Americans uninsured, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown was predicting it would raise costs and cut benefits.
Brown, a Democrat, mounted an attack on two fronts he said would hurt veterans and millions of others: The House Republican healthcare plan and President Trump’s budget.
Estimates of Impact on Ohio in 2018 per the Joint Economic Committee Democratic staff: Increase in Premiums, $550; No. Losing Private Coverage, 292,982; Increased Cost of Uncompensated Care to Hospitals, $263,684,124
He said the Republican reductions in Medicaid would cut off 71,000 Ohio veterans, including 25,000 who got coverage through the Medicaid expansion that came with Obamacare. And he accused Republicans of rushing through their plan, contrasting it with the slower pace of the Affordable Care Act.
“The Democrats took months and months to do this. We had literally dozens of hearings, and the committee I was on in the Senate – the Health Committee – we accepted over 150 Republican amendments to the bill. They did none of those things that traditionally legislators do and should do.”
Brown says he’s uncertain what will happen to the bill in the Senate, but believes polls and protests against the Republican plan have already had an impact.
Here's the state-by-state breakdown on what would happen in 2018, according to the Democratic staff review of the CBO report.
