Washington, D.C.—Today Congress approved a final tax bill that essentially repeals the nation’s health care law with no replacement.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), eliminating the insurance requirement from current law would lead to 13 million more Americans being uninsured by 2027 and would increase premiums by 10 percent annually.
The bill does, however preserve a portion of the orphan drug tax credit, which is used to encourage development of new treatments for relatively rare conditions, including many cancers. It also preserves the medical expense deduction for those who incur high medical costs.
A statement from Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) follows:
“Today’s repeal of the individual mandate without a replacement sets the stage toward transforming the individual insurance market into essentially little more than a high-risk pool complete with rising costs and few choices. Young and healthy people will be more likely to forgo coverage or buy subpar plans outside the exchange, and those who most need comprehensive benefits—like cancer patients and survivors—will be left paying unmanageable costs.
“Over the last year, Americans have repeatedly made clear they do not support a repeal of the current health law without a strong replacement. Yet Congress still included this highly damaging provision in an otherwise unrelated tax bill.
“Lawmakers now need to take immediate action to pass Senators Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Murray’s (D-Wash.) and Senators Collins (R-ME) and Nelson’s (D-Fla.) bipartisan bills that would restore cost-sharing subsidies, as well as provide additional funding to help compensate insurers for their costlier patients through reinsurance. These bills could help mitigate the almost certain harm patients are likely to experience due to repeal, and offer a starting point for what needs to be a much more comprehensive and bipartisan approach to strengthening our nation’s health care system moving forward.
“On behalf of all those affected by cancer we stand ready to work with Congress on real solutions that will ensure cancer patients, survivors and those at risk for the disease can continue to have access to meaningful, affordable health care.”