How Repealing Obamacare Would Hurt Veterans
As Republicans were launching their last-ditch effort to repeal and replace Obamacare last week, this time in the form of the Graham-Cassidy bill, a study was released offering some disturbing statistics about one group that would likely be hit hard by the proposed legislation: veterans. At the very least, reversing the coverage gains that occurred under Obamacare would increase the population of uninsured veterans from 5.8% to 9.1%, according to the study, which was conducted by the RAND Corporation.
But there would likely be many more negative implications for retired service men and women of scaling back Obamacare, formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA). For example, the study predicted that most of the nonelderly veterans who would lose their health coverage would be low-income and unhealthy. That could spell trouble for the VA hospital system, which has struggled over the past several years to provide quality care to its growing population of patients.
"Some veterans who lose health insurance coverage as a result of ACA repeal will become more likely to seek care from the VA health system, leading to additional strain on a health care system that already faces challenges in ensuring adequate capacity," said the study’s lead author, economist Michael Dworsky, in a statement.
In some states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA, such as Arkansas, any loss of Medicaid funding could spark an even higher demand for VA health services, the study found.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arleneweintraub/2017/09/21/heres-how-repealing-obamacare-would-hurt-veterans/#49f053fb2d18
