Protect Our Care: Texas Lawsuit Days of Action – Medicaid Expansion

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 -- Protect Our Care issued the following news:

Last month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Trump administration and Republicans in Texas vs. United States, striking down as unconstitutional the ACA's individual mandate and remanding to the lower court judge a final decision on what parts of the ACA should be eliminated - the very judge who has already ruled the entire law unconstitutional. If President Trump and Republicans have their way, 20 million Americans will lose their insurance coverage, 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions will be stripped of their protections, and costs will go up for millions.

"The Fifth Circuit's disastrous decision on President Trump's Texas lawsuit puts the health care of millions of Americans at risk. The court's decision will impact every corner of the American health care system, threatening health care access for children, seniors, women, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQ Americans in communities across the country," said Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse. "Over the course of the next two weeks, we will be reminding Americans what's really at stake if the courts ultimately overturn the health care law."

Days of Action: Day 1 of 11 focuses on Medicaid Expansion. To learn more about our Days of Action, visit our website.

From POLITICO Pulse: "...Advocates launch campaign on Obamacare lawsuit's consequences. Protect Our Care is starting an 11-day campaign 'centered on the real-world impacts of overturning the ACA,' the pro-Obamacare group shared first with PULSE. Today's events will focus on the effects of rolling back the ACA's Medicaid expansion; future 'days of action' will focus on how LGBTQ patients, seniors and other populations have benefited from the law."

What's At Stake: Medicaid Expansion

Overturning the Affordable Care Act would take coverage away from millions of working families and children who finally gained health coverage thanks to Medicaid expansion.

17 Million People Are Currently Enrolled Through Medicaid Expansion

Medicaid Expansion Led To Gains In Coverage For Children. A study in Health Affairs found that "710,000 children gained public coverage when their parents enrolled in Medicaid between 2013 and 2015. If the remaining 19 non-expansion states expanded Medicaid, 200,000 additional children would gain health coverage through existing programs. The effect was largest among children whose parents gained Medicaid eligibility through the expansion." [Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, 1/12/18]

Medicaid Expansion Saved Lives. A report by the Center On Budget And Policy Priorities found that "the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults is preventing thousands of premature deaths each year, a landmark study finds.[1] It saved the lives of at least 19,200 adults aged 55 to 64 over the four-year period from 2014 to 2017. Conversely, 15,600 older adults died prematurely because of state decisions not to expand Medicaid." [Center On Budget And Policy Priorities, 11/6/19]

If the Affordable Care Act is struck down:

* Seventeen Million People Enrolled Through Medicaid Expansion Could Lose Coverage.

* Access To Treatment Would Be In Jeopardy For 800,000 People With Opioid Use Disorder. Roughly four in ten, or 800,000 people with an opioid use disorder are enrolled in Medicaid. Many became eligible through Medicaid expansion.

* Key Support For Rural Hospitals Would Disappear, leaving hospitals with $9.6 billion more in uncompensated care.

* States Would Lose Important Federal Health Care Funding -- an estimated reduction of $135 billion in the first year. The Urban Institute estimates that a full repeal of the ACA would reduce federal spending on Medicaid/CHIP care and Marketplace subsidies by $135 billion, or 34.6 percent in the first year.