Maddow Blog-It's not just Medicaid: Republicans' megabill would sabotage the Affordable Care Act

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The GOP has dropped the “repeal and replace” phrasing, but its megabill is an anti-ACA package that would take coverage from millions of Americans.

SURPRISE! TRUMP AND GOP ARE LYING! AGAIN!!
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

It’s not just Medicaid: Republicans’ megabill would sabotage the Affordable Care Act www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Tabby (@tabbys-corner.bsky.social) 2025-06-02T16:52:07.060Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republican-megabill-affordable-care-act-obamacare-medicaid-rcna210417

Despite the health care law’s popularity, the party won big — and it’s now following through on its rhetoric. The Washington Post reported:

Congressional Republicans are pursuing changes to the Affordable Care Act that would mean 10.7 million fewer Americans using its insurance marketplaces and Medicaid, a huge reduction that some view as a way to accomplish part of the health-care coverage cancellation that failed in 2017.

Of course, GOP officials aren’t explicitly saying that they’re trying to gut the ACA. In fact, the Post’s headline is emblematic of the fact that these efforts are unfolding largely out of the spotlight: “Shhh. Republicans are trying to repeal Obamacare again. Sort of.”

But the practical results are the same. Matt Salo, former executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, told the Post, in reference to the Republicans’ reconciliation package, “It is very much like a backdoor repeal and replace. They’ve been too cute by half by doing it but not calling it that.”

Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, describing the real-world effects of the GOP megabill, added, “They’re not calling this ACA repeal and replace, but the coverage losses would be among many of the same people who would have lost their insurance under ACA repeal.”

......With this in mind, NBC News reported that new coalition of health care advocates, called Keep Americans Covered, is launching a new seven-figure ad campaign on the issue.

Link to tweet

....In case this isn’t obvious, in the first year of Trump’s first term, Republicans also went after the ACA, and the political blowback was enormous: The effort inspired progressive activists to get more engaged, put the GOP on the defensive and pushed the president’s approval rating sharply lower. The political damage lingered and did real harm to Republicans in the 2018 midterms.

It would probably be wise for Democrats to focus their messaging accordingly. The Republicans’ megabill is, for all intents and purposes, an anti-health care bill that would take coverage from millions of American families.

[LudwigPastorius]

1. If this bill successfully makes it to Trump's desk, and they sunset the ACA tax subsidies,...

my monthly premiums will go from $207.10 to $1,351.10.

Needless to say, I can't pay that.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Same with me.

That's over 50% of my income after taxes.

The GOP are sadists who want to bankrupt and kill just for the fun of it.

[kelly1mm]

2. Isn't this just going back to the 'regular' ACA subsidies that were expanded to those over

400% of Federal Poverty Level due to COVID? These subsidies were already set to expire at the end of 2025 per existing law.

Not further extending a temporary benefit is not the same as 'cutting' benefits. It is like when Republicans were claiming President Obama was 'raising taxes' when he was allowing temporary tax cuts to expire.

[Grins]

3. Democrats and media should ask: Where's the healthcare plan you promised in 2019?

And the ‘should be by now’ fleshed-out “concept” of a replacement healthcare plan for the AFA that Trump promised last September? Call him - and the GOP - out!

[peggysue2]

6. Two weeks, Grins

Agent Orange's fantastic, no comparison healthcare plan is . . . TWO WEEKS away. We'll be astonished and crying "We can't believe how great, how out of the ballpark, how affordable Orange Health is."

Might even be FREE.

Two weeks, promise.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Plans, states warn of Obamacare chaos due to GOP megabill

This crappy bill will defund and kill the Affordable Care Act

Link to tweet

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/02/congress/plans-states-warn-of-obamacare-chaos-due-to-gop-megabill-00377395

Private insurers and state officials are warning of utter chaos in the insurance markets if a last-minute change to the House GOP’s megabill survives in the Senate.

The policy could lead to higher premiums for people who shop for plans on the Obamacare exchanges and cause massive turmoil for actuaries, and leave brokers and state officials with little time between when the law is enacted and the start of open enrollment in the fall to understand the many ways the change affects Affordable Care Act plans.

Under the bill, which the House passed recently, certain federal payments to insurers that President Donald Trump canceled during his first term would resume next year, but only if plans refuse to cover abortions, which they are obligated to cover in 12 states and the District of Columbia.

The policy adds to uncertainty over eligibility changes and the looming expiration of ACA enhanced premium subsidies, and could lead to insurance premiums increasing so steeply they could jeopardize the Obamacare market, according to one insurance executive granted anonymity to speak freely on the issue.

“Putting all three of these into 2026 at once is truly putting the market at risk for a death spiral with rates,” the executive said. “We think Republicans have not really calculated this one.”