Twin Falls protesters call on Crapo to oppose Obamacare rollback
"I just think it's not fair that they're taking all this away from us," he said. "I just don't think that they care about people with disabilities."
Overman, who lives in
"If I don't have my lithium, my mind goes a million miles an hour," he said.
Friday morning, Overman and about 100 others, many of them people with disabilities who would be affected by cuts to Medicaid, rallied at
The
However -- and this was the focus of the protesters Friday -- it would also make deeper long-term cuts to Medicaid by sending states a fixed amount per enrollee rather than the current open-ended program and, after 2025, tying funding growth to inflation rather than medical costs. It could also lead to fewer plans covering mental health and other services by letting states opt out of the ACA's requirement that all plans must cover certain "essential health benefits."
State Rep.
"It's a potential death sentence for millions of Americans who will be kicked off health care plans and Medicaid and have nowhere else to turn," she said of the bill. "It is a tax cut bill for the wealthiest corporations and wealthiest Americans to the tune of
"Everyone thinks this is happening to somebody else, (that) it's just the poor lazy people who are on Medicaid," he said. "It affects everyone."
"I would rather see our representatives work with us to make the Affordable Care Act better rather than just going this route of deeply cutting and abolishing Medicaid as an alternative," he said.
The bill's chances of passage seem uncertain -- the
Crapo said in a statement he would be reviewing the bill but that it represents "a promising step toward maintaining affordable care." He said it wouldn't change Medicare, still lets people stay on their parents' insurance until they turn 26 and keeps protections for people with pre-existing conditions. This last point is disputed -- the
Crapo noted that it would extend subsidies to buy insurance to more of the working poor, and said the Medicaid cuts would put the program "on a sustainable fiscal path to ensure this necessary safety-net program can continue to serve our most vulnerable patients."
"Insurers are dropping out of the exchanges around the country," Crapo's statement said. "The
"Since
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