More than $3 billion in federal funds would not be received by Connecticut each year if the Republican Senate healthcare plan were to be enacted.
That kind of a hit could devastate the state’s healthcare economy, and lead to job losses at hospitals and doctors’ offices statewide.
"Medicaid cuts of the size they’re saying, $700 million, you know that’s a humanitarian catastrophe but it’s also a financial catastrophe because someone has to pay for those people and it ends up being everybody who has private insurance," said U.S. Senator Chris Murphy who’s actively worked to prevent the measure from being brought up to a vote.
Further, according to the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management that handles budget and spending matters for the Malloy Administration, it estimated that between 80,000 and 230,000 people could lose coverage altogether over the next decade, as a direct result of the Medicaid cuts.
Murphy said, "Those people just end up in the emergency room and those hospitals pass the costs along to insurance companies, so insurers all across the country are pretty freaked out already."
Without an individual mandate, a hallmark of the Affordable Care Act, OPM estimates that premiums for some privately held plans could rise by as much as 15 percent, and without funding for subsidies which help people pay for coverage, more than 2,000 Access Health Connecticut marketplace customers may lose insurance.
The bill won’t be called for a vote this week, after Republican Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell had set a goal for Thursday for a vote. The bill is on hold until he can secure the fifty votes needed to pass it. Senate Republicans would rely on the vice president to break the tie.
Local
They have argued that there is a need to rein in spending for Medicaid which provides health coverage for the poorest Americans, as well as many elderly.
Murphy said he hopes when Republican senators return to their districts for the July 4th holiday, that they get an earful from their constituents about why they can’t support the healthcare bill in its current form.
Murphy said while Obamacare isn’t perfect, it’s better than what the Republicans have proposed and would rather see a bipartisan solution to healthcare.
"We understand there are problems that need to be fixed. We’d just rather do it together, Republicans and Democrats," Murphy said.
