New Analysis Shows Coverage for Hundreds of Thousands of Coloradans Threatened by a Trump Presidency
(9/28/2016)
Years of Progress for Latinos, African-Americans, Women and Young Adults Could be Lost
Washington, D.C. – Donald’s Trump’s health care plan, which would “completely repeal” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), would enable insurance companies to resume denying coverage based on pre-existing or chronic conditions – like diabetes, high blood pressure, or a previous cancer – threatening coverage for hundreds of thousands of Coloradans, including 66,000 working-age Latinos, 14,000 working-age African-Americans, and 137,000 working-age women, according to an analysis released today by Families USA Action.
Other key findings from the analysis include:
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The Trump plan would also eliminate the prohibition that prevents insurers from charging women discriminatory premiums, putting at risk the coverage of the approximately about 209,000 Colorado women who buy their own health insurance. Before this prohibition was established, women were often charged as much as 30 percent more for the same coverage as a man
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The right for young adults to stay on their parents’ health care plan would come to an end, meaning 191,000 Coloradans ages 18-25, who are now on their parents’ plan, would lose that coverage.
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Trump’s plan would close the insurance exchange and eliminate the subsidies that kept insurance affordable, which could strip individual coverage from thousands of Coloradans, including, 76,889 women and 12,062 young adults.
Trump would hit low-income Coloradans particularly hard by replacing the Medicaid program with a block grant that would jeopardize existing coverage for approximately 345,000 Latinos, 78,000 African-Americans, 297,000 adult women, and 206,000 girls under the age of 18.
Clinton, on the other hand, has proposed providing additional subsidies to make plans purchased on the marketplace more affordable, offering financial assistance to Colorado families who pay more than 5 percent of their income towards medical expenses, and generating new resources to help community groups get qualifying Floridians enrolled in a health care plan.
The analysis – released as part of Families USA Action’s 2016 “Vote Your Health” campaign — is based on information the candidates have publicly provided, and then contrasted with publicly available government data or other reliable studies. Some of the populations in these numbers will overlap.
“The differences between the two candidates on healthcare is staggering and voters need to be made aware of that,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA Action. “We can keep making steady progress toward offering affordable health insurance for all, or go back to the dark days when insurance companies could discriminate against and deny coverage to people with chronic health problems.”
Families USA Action plans to get this information in front of the voters through its own network and with the help of its state supporters.
Families USA Action is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to achieving a health care system that works for everyone and to educating Americans about how the decisions they make at the ballot box affect their health and their families’ economic security.