House leadership has canceled a planned vote on the American Health Care Act (AHCA). It is not known when the vote may be rescheduled, but reports say it could be as early as tomorrow.
NRHA continues to meet with key members of the House and Senate to share concerns on the AHCA and to encourage amendments that are essential for any health care reform to work in rural America.
NRHA urges members of Congress to protect rural Americans and vote no on the AHCA. The health bill does nothing to improve the health care crisis in rural America, and will lead to poorer rural health outcomes, more uninsured and an increase in the rural hospital closure crisis.
Though some provisions in the modified AHCA bill improve the base bill, NRHA is concerned that the bill falls woefully short in making health care affordable and accessible to rural Americans. For example, the modified bill contains a decrease in the Medical Expense Deduction threshold from 10% to 5.8% in an attempt to assist Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 who would see their premiums skyrocket under the current plan. However, this deduction is not a credit and therefore would be of little use to low income seniors that are in very low tax brackets or do not pay income tax at all. Additionally, the new amendments to freeze Medicaid expansion enrollment as of Jan. 1, 2018, and reduce the Medicaid per-capita growth rate will disproportionately harm rural Americans.
The AHCA will hurt vulnerable populations in rural America, leaving millions of the sickest, most underserved populations in our nation without coverage, and further the rural hospital closure crisis.