Advocates warn of damage from ACA repeal

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People in Pennsylvania will lose jobs, the state will lose money and hospital revenue will decline if the Affordable Care Act goes away, according to a report released Thursday by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.

The law’s repeal would reduce spending on health care, leading to the loss of more than 137,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, the report found, noting the lost jobs would be in industries such as health care and construction.

The state’s gross domestic product, meanwhile, could be reduced by about $75 billion, and state and local tax revenues would decline by $2.4 billion over a five-year period, the report added.

Health care is projected to comprise18.5 percent of the U.S. economy by 2019, the report said.

Providers also fear a decline in hospital revenue without the ACA, because fewer patients would be able  to pay for services. Hospitals in urban and rural areas may not survive, according to the report. 

An estimated 1.1 million Pennsylvanians would lose health insurance if no replacement plan is put in place, Marc Stier, director of the center said.

“A law may be passed in 2017 that repeals key parts of the ACA. But when that law ultimately goes into effect, individuals and communities across Pennsylvania face severe losses,” Stier said. “And that is why it makes no sense to repeal the ACA before some replacement is put in place that accomplishes at least as the current law does.”

Trump: repeal and replace

Shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to do what they could to lessen the burden of the ACA.

Health care industry leaders and government officials across the country are anxiously waiting to hear what’s happening next.

Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller has been vocal about her wish to see revisions to the ACA, instead of the law’s repeal.

“We need to make changes to the ACA to stabilize the market, but we need to keep the provisions of the law that have helped so many Pennsylvanians have access to affordable health insurance,” Miller said Tuesday night on a Pittsburgh cable news channel.

In communities across the midstate, some people are disappointed with the ACA marketplace, saying their health plan options cut off at county lines and premiums are high.

Insurance companies say they have lost millions of dollars covering people under the ACA, because those signing up tend to bring with them higher health care costs due to illness. The trends have prompted some insurers to raise premiums, and others to back out of the marketplace entirely.

The House and Senate have already approved a federal budget that would repeal select parts of the ACA.