本周末，众议院共和党人在马里兰州的巴尔的摩举行了年度立法会议，他们在那里概述了他们对即将到来的一年及以后的计划。议程上的重点：摆脱“平价医疗法案”的好处，他们在去年失去多数席位之前失败了。
美国人“希望我们专注于降低成本，给予他们更多选择，并保护已有条件的人，”少数民族鞭子史蒂夫斯卡利斯周五在新闻发布会上说。由于特朗普政府继续通过行政命令和压力谴责奥巴马医改的部分地区，联邦法院认为医疗保健计划违宪，共和党人尚未提出适当的替代计划。不过，他们已经将“废除”部分打倒了。“这就是我们所代表的。当我们明年获得新的大多数时，这就是我们想要实施的目标，我们将会这样做，”斯卡利斯继续道。
今年早些时候，“华盛顿邮报”报道，众议院少数党领袖凯文麦卡锡指责共和党众议院在试图以匆忙的计划废除和取代ACA的损失，该计划将终止对已有条件的人的保护。据报道，麦卡锡私下与捐助者交谈时，指责众议院极右翼的自由核心小组推动该法案，这个群体现在基本上无能为力。
与此同时，上周公布的新人口普查数据显示，2018年美国无保险人口的比例增加了约200万人。去年，约有8.5％的美国人，即2750万人没有健康保险。这比2017年的7.9％有所上升。
“这种倒退几乎肯定反映了 - 至少部分 - 特朗普政府削弱公共医疗保险的政策，”预算与政策优先事项中心主席罗伯特格林斯坦在一份声明中写道。“虽然未保险税率仍然远低于其在ACA之前的水平，但如果政府最终通过立法和法院继续努力废除法律，那么通过ACA取得的成果将完全消失。”
2010年至2016年，在实施“平价医疗法案”后的前六年，美国未投保的人数大幅下降，但2017年，共和党人推动他们全面攻击奥巴马时代的立法，七年来第一次持平。现在，没有保险的美国人的比例正在增长。
在特朗普总统执政的第一天，他签署了一项行政命令，要求联邦机构在“法律允许的最大范围内”推迟并放弃“平价医疗法”规定的任何福利。后来，总统和国会推翻了该计划的个人授权，要求所有美国人投保或支付罚款。最近，特朗普政府呼吁法院撤销整个法案，城市研究所预计这将使2000万美国人无法保险。
HOUSE REPUBLICANS REVEAL 2020 STRATEGY: ATTACK OBAMACARE (AGAIN)
This weekend, House Republicans held their annual legislative retreat in Baltimore, Maryland, where they outlined their plans for the upcoming year and beyond. High on the agenda: getting rid of the Affordable Care Act for good, something they failed at before losing their majority last year.
Americans "want us to focus on lowering costs, giving them more choice and protecting people with preexisting conditions," Minority Whip Steve Scalise said at a press conference Friday. As the Trump administration continues to hack away at parts of Obamacare via executive orders and pressures the federal courts to rule the health care program unconstitutional, Republicans have yet to come up with a suitable replacement plan for the act. They've got the "repeal" part down, though. "That's what we stand for. That's what we want to implement when we get the new majority next year, which we will," continued Scalise.
Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blamed the major Republican House losses on attempting to repeal and replace the ACA with a rushed plan that would end protections people with pre-existing conditions. When speaking privately to donors, McCarthy reportedly blamed the House's far-right Freedom Caucus for pushing the bill, a group which is now largely powerless.
New census data out last week, meanwhile, showed that the rate of Americans living without insurance rose by about 2 million people in 2018. About 8.5 percent of Americans, or 27.5 million people, did not have health coverage last year. That's up from 7.9 percent in 2017.
"This backsliding almost certainly reflects — at least in part — Trump Administration policies to weaken public health coverage," wrote Center on Budget and Policy Priorities president Robert Greenstein in a statement. "While the uninsured rate remains far below its pre-ACA level, the gains achieved through the ACA will entirely disappear if the Administration ultimately succeeds in its continued efforts to repeal the law through legislation and the courts."
Between 2010 and 2016, the first six years after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the rates of those uninsured in the U.S. dropped significantly, but in 2017, as Republicans pushed their full-on assault of the Obama-era legislation, that rate was flat for the first time in seven years. Now the rate of uninsured Americans is growing.
On President Trump's first day in office, he signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to delay and waive any benefits provided by the Affordable Care Act "to the maximum extent permitted by law." Later, the president and Congress overturned the program's individual mandate which requires all Americans to be insured or pay a fine. Most recently, the Trump administration appealed to the courts to strike down the entire bill, which the Urban Institute predicts would leave 20 million more Americans uninsured.
