Health Groups Slam Skinny Repeal Saying It Would Be ‘Devastating Blow’ To System

Skinny repeal gets a big fat no from health organizations.

It looks like the nation’s health and patient advocacy organizations don’t like the so-called skinny repeal of Obamacare.

 
The Health care groups came out against the Senate GOP’s latest plan to pass a scaled down version of their Obamacare repeal bill.

The groups, which include The American Medical Association, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, blasted the idea saying it would cause insurance premiums to spike dramatically.

The skinny repeal bill would do away with Obamacare’s mandate for people to have insurance. Insurance organizations and other health groups say that repealing the individual mandate would cause healthy people to leave the market and leave a sicker and older insurance market causing a spike in premiums.

The skinny repeal would also get rid of the employer mandate.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association warned of “steep premium increases and diminished choices that would make coverage unaffordable and inaccessible.”

And the American Medical Association said, “Eliminating the mandate to obtain coverage only exacerbates the affordability problem that critics say they want to address.”

“We again urge the Senate to engage in a bipartisan process — through regular order — to address the shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act and achieve the goal of providing access to quality, affordable health care coverage to more Americans,” the AMA continued.

The Congressional Budget Office analysis found that repealing the individual mandate would lead to 15 million more uninsured people and cause premiums to increase by about 20 percent.