General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How do you repeal the ACA without a replacement? [View all]stopbush
(24,810 posts)Middle-Class Families with Employer Coverage
For middle-class families now receiving health insurance through their employer, the Senate bill would create new risks particularly in the case of a sudden financial or health-related shock. The ACAs bar on annual and lifetime coverage limits insulates families including those with employer-based coverage from the risk that a costly illness could force them into financial distress or bankruptcy. Likewise, the ACA provides an avenue for middle-class workers who lose their jobs to get affordable coverage through the individual market or Medicaid. The Senate bill would remove these safeguards:
The bill could lead to the return of annual and lifetime limits that protect middle-income families from bankruptcy including families with employer plans. As a Brookings analysis showed, states ability to waive Essential Health Benefits would allow for the return of annual and lifetime limits on coverage.[10] Not only could those limits return in the individual market, but large employers in any state could potentially reinstate them.[11] Before the ACA, 70 million people with employer-based coverage or 59 percent of these people faced lifetime limits.[12] If these limits return, once again a serious illness could drive middle-class families into financial hardship or even bankruptcy.
People who lose job-based coverage or want to leave their job might not have access to affordable insurance. Tens of millions of people each year lose job-based coverage and either enroll in individual market coverage or become uninsured.[13] Thus, the availability of affordable, comprehensive individual market coverage is an important protection for people with employer coverage. The Senate bill, by making individual market coverage much less affordable, would undermine this protection.
http://www.cbpp.org/research/health/middle-class-families-would-face-higher-costs-worse-coverage-under-senate-health