Once again Ali Velshi is doing what journalist and media are supposed to be doing, explaining the results of policies implemented by politicians based on facts. Repealing the ACA has grave consequences that Republicans do not want you to know.
Ali Velshi explains what repealing Obamacare means
After the failure of the new version of Trumpcare in the Senate, McConnell has reverted to solely repealing the ACA. Ali Velshi points out the dangers.
“I do want to address Garrett this one issue that some people have brought up Stephanie about completely repealing or what would happen if you repealed and you didn’t replace,” Ali Velshi said. “I think it’s important for viewers to see this, so they understand it. It’s actually a very dangerous road to go down for a Congress that has not been able to make a deal.”
Velshi then went to his big screen in the role of truth teller in chief. He starts by explaining the explosion in the number of the uninsured.
“Before Obamacare, before the ACA there were 57 million uninsured people in America,” Velshi said. “We now have 27 million uninsured. We have taken more than half of the people who had no insurance off the rolls. If you were to, sorry 26 million uninsured. If you were to remove Obamacare now and not replace it, one year later 44 million people would be uninsured because the penalties that are tied to the individual mandate will be eliminated and insurers will then leave the exchanges. Within two years we will be at 53 million uninsured. This is the Congressional Budget Office by the way. They put this out in January because this was being discussed. Medicaid expansion and the subsidies to Medicaid expansion would be eliminated, and by 2026 because we always look out to ten years we would have more uninsured Americans than there were before Obamacare.”
Velshi then discussed what would happen to health insurance premiums.
“Let’s take a look at the next slide and tell you the effect that it’s going to have on premiums,” Ali Velshi said. “Again, if you just took out Obamacare, didn’t replace replace it, within a year you would see premiums go up in the individual market, that’s people who don’t get their insurance through Medicaid or through work, 20% to 25% up 50% year two and would nearly double within ten years by 2026.
Velshi then explained what repealing without replacing would do to the Marketplace.
“Let’s take a look at the third screen, and I’ll tell you the effect that it’s going to have on the marketplace fifty percent of all Americans in year one would live in areas that had no insurer participation. Remember we do not have a public option under Obamacare. It was something it was discussed. It didn’t happen. So half of all Americans would live in places with no insurer participation, and by 2026 seventy-five percent of all Americans would live in areas with no insurance participation in the public market.”
He ends with the effects repealing the ACA would have on the Federal Deficit.
“And finally this is a big one that you need to talk to your members of Congress about if they are conservatives and if you are conservatives. The effect on the federal deficit of replacing, of repealing Obamacare without replacing it, is an increase to the federal deficit of one hundred and thirty-seven billion dollars over the course of the next ten years. It’s an increase. So Stephanie all right you look at that you tell me what good comes of repealing without replacing.
It is imperative that Americans not buy the rhetoric that Republicans are spewing. They believe that if they eventually make a move to repeal the ACA without replacing it that somehow Democrats would work with them. That is unlikely as no party can work with the other with a gun to their head.