The Pennsylvania Health Funders Collaborative, a non-partisan network of about 40 funding organizations across the Commonwealth, has released an important data report demonstrating how Pennsylvanians would be affected by a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
PHFC’s findings include:
- One million adults and children would lose health insurance
- Seniors on Medicare would lose protection from large prescription drug costs
- Nearly 10 million people covered by private insurance would lose valuable protections e.g.
- The state’s hospitals collectively would lose billions of dollars in revenue
- 137,000 Pennsylvania residents would likely lose their jobs
Additionally, nearly all Pennsylvanians would be affected by the loss of ACA provisions that ensure:
- no annual and life time limits
- coverage for pre-existing conditions
- young adults able to remain on their parents’ coverage to age 26
- no increased premiums for gender or medical condition, and limits on increases for age
- mental health parity, requiring equal coverage for mental and physical health care
- no-cost preventive health care including vaccinations, birth control, mammograms, colorectal
- screening, etc.
- the requirement that insurers apply 80% of premium to pay for care or refund premium not used
The report includes consumer data for each of the state's 18 congressional districts and for Philadelphia, Allegheny, Montgomery and Delaware counties. It also presents data on how individual hospitals in each of the state's 67 counties would be affected.
To accompany the report, Pennsylvania Health Access Network has compiled stories from consumers throughout the state describing how ACA repeal would leave them and their children vulnerable to health problems, bankruptcy, and loss of their businesses.
