To the Editor,
Today, I write to oppose the Senate’s new effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (“Graham-Cassidy”) proposal.
All of the previous ACA-repeal proposals defeated early this year in the Senate would have been devastating to California’s advancements, but the Graham-Cassidy legislation is by far the most damaging of the ACA-repeal attempts.
This legislation specifically targets California’s investments by reducing our resources and redistributing them to other states that have de-prioritized health care. An Avalere analysis found that California stands to lose $78 billion by 2026 through the elimination of Medicaid expansion funding and subsidies for low-income Californians to purchase insurance and the per capita cap of traditional Medicaid.
Furthermore, by 2027 after the block grants expire, California would lose $51 billion total between the Medicaid per capita cap and loss of ACA funds. Fourteen million Californians who receive coverage through Medi-Cal and 1.5 million people who buy insurance through Covered California may lose their coverage. This bill would not only eliminate the Medicaid financing for the expansion population and the subsidies for Covered California, but would cut federal funding for the most vulnerable Medicaid populations — children, seniors and people with disabilities.
Advocacy efforts defeated the Senate’s previous proposals to repeal or weaken the ACA. I ask Central Coast residents to take the time to contact your senators and urge them to oppose the Graham-Cassidy proposal and share your concerns as well.
Marcus Pimentel
Board Chair of Salud Para La Gente
