EDITORIAL: Trumpcare is bad for Alabama

May 09--Warning, the American Health Care Act (aka Trumpcare) is a trap for Alabama and its residents.

It looks like what the majority of Alabama voters say they want: It isn't Obamacare, the health-care law congressional Republicans have attempted to repeal since 2011. It cuts taxes on the wealthy, a cherished value among proud Alabama conservatives. It reduces the role of the federal government while handing more decisions over to the states, another thing cherished by Alabama politicians.

In truth, the bill that passed the U.S. House last week and now awaits action in the U.S. Senate would make a bad situation even worse for states like Alabama.

Alabama's politicians like to think of their state as a place where self-sufficiency rules the day. Most of our politicians get elected by shaking their fists at Washington, D.C., and its big-government ways. Just leave us alone, they cry.

What really happens is that the federal government picks up a big part of the tab for Alabama's conservatism. Taxpayers elsewhere foot the bill to care for the sickest among us.

For instance, the federal government picks up two-thirds of Alabama's Medicaid costs. About 1 million Alabama residents depend on Medicaid. Under Trumpcare, it's quite likely Alabama will receive less money to fund Medicaid, regardless of whether it accepts block grants or a per-capita formula. History tells us the state and its taxpayers will carry more of the load.

"They're locking in the state's historic decisions around the program," Robin Rudowitz, associate director for the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, told the Montgomery Advertiser. "A state like Alabama has provided a pretty lean program, so they could be more at risk. They don't have a lot of room to achieve savings or make further reductions in their program."

Trumpcare also gets states to restructure what it would mandate insurers to cover, potentially easing the list of basic items covered by Obamacare. If given a waiver by the feds, Alabama customers with cancer or arthritis or who are pregnant or some other pre-existing condition might have to pay more to be covered.

"Alabama's a big loser under this plan," Jim Carnes, policy director for Alabama Arise, told the Montgomery Advertiser. "We know from experience when given options on health coverage and health policy, Alabama always chooses the least and worst."

While Obamacare is in need of improvements, its proposed successor is a step in the wrong direction, increasing the number of uninsured and giving states like Alabama incentives to worsen health care. Our best hope now is that Trumpcare never makes it out of the U.S. Senate.

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