The GOP’s new healthcare legislation could be detrimental to cancer patients if passed. The proposed Graham-Cassidy Bill would essentially allow insurers to deny coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions and raise premiums. According to the president of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Louis J. DeGennaro, the bill would, “remove protections that prevent insurers from cutting off access for patients undergoing costly cancer treatments and hiking up premiums after a cancer diagnosis. At the same time, this bill would slash tax credits and other assistance to many low and middle-income cancer patients, increasing their out-of-pocket costs when they are most vulnerable.”
In addition, the bill would transfer federal healthcare funding from states that have expanded Medicaid to states that haven't, like Texas, in particular, which could see a $35 billion influx within the span of 8 years. Health insurance would also become a state issue, leaving each individual state to determine what their health insurance system would look like, which could result in having 50 different health insurance systems.
While this bill, in its entirety, seems to exclude and hinder those most in need of coverage, the co-sponsor of this legislation, Senator Lindsey Graham, claims that, “this is the only process left available to stop a march towards socialism.” Note that this comment says nothing about the policies under the proposed system and how it would negatively effect over 30 million people. Instead, Graham’s main concern is about preventing this country from going down a path that was never even on the route.
Whether or not the majority of GOP senators truly believe this is the best possible bill for the people of America is difficult to say, but for Trump, passing this bill has nothing to do with his concern for the quality of health insurance we have in this country and is mostly about simply repealing the Affordable Care Act, otherwise referred to as Obamacare. The President’s main concern is repealing a bill with former President Obama’s name attached to it. To him, any bill is a good bill if it replaces Obamacare, the contents of it are simply secondary, and we have clearly seen that throughout every attempt to pass healthcare legislation this year.