Commentary: Joint Economic Committee Democrats released a new report on the damaging impact TrumpCare would have on rural America. Instead of focusing on improving health care delivery in rural America, House Republicans passed a bill that will only make it harder to access affordable, quality health services in rural communities across the country.
The report, “TrumpCare: Leaving Rural Health Behind,” highlights that TrumpCare could put coverage at risk for the 20 million rural Americans who have a pre-existing condition. The report also details other ways TrumpCare would devastate rural communities, including:
- Increasing number of uninsured. About 2.9 million rural Americans could lose health care by 2020, including many of the 1.7 million who gained coverage through Medicaid expansion.
- Stripping $839 billion from Medicaid. Over the next ten years, TrumpCare will unduly hurt rural hospitals, which rely on Medicaid for 11 percent of their revenue.
- Threatening rural hospital closures. Uninsurance spikes plus other marketplace uncertainty threatens rural hospitals that are already struggling to keep their doors open—673 rural hospitals, employing nearly 100,000 workers, are already at risk of closure.
- Destabilizing individual marketplaces. By replacing need-based tax credits with less-generous flat credits, TrumpCare threatens coverage for the 15 percent of rural Americans that get coverage through the exchanges.
“If the President and House Republicans’ disastrous TrumpCare bill becomes law, many Americans living in rural communities would lose access to health coverage that has helped their families—and in some cases even saved their lives,” said U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee. “Wreaking this type of chaos and denying whole communities across the country accessible health care is completely immoral and totally unacceptable. TrumpCare is nothing more than a tax cut for the ultra-rich that would leave millions of Americans in rural communities to suffer, and without access to the care they need.”
The report can be found here.