Today the House Leadership of the 112th Congress will consider repealing the Affordable Health Care Act that passed last year. President Obama, key democrats, and health care advocates worked hard to get that act passed. Local AIDS service organizations had their issues with selected parts of the bill in the past but it was a good place to begin. Now the Republican dominated House wants to repeal the act. According to the News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 60 million or 1 in 5 Americans have no health insurance. The Act, as it stands now, will provide coverage to an 32 million uninsured Americans and strengthen the Medicare program. For people with HIV/AIDS, it will mean much more.
Repealing the act would mean:
* No expansion of Medicaid which would assist people with HIV/AIDS with life-saving healthcare
* No added provisions such as high-risk pools and insurance exchanges. Those who have no coverage or have been previously denied coverage (perhaps because of a pre-existing condition) may be continuously denied and will not be able to comparison shop for private health-insurance plans.
* The Medicare Part D drug benefit coverage gap (otherwise known as the donut hole) stays put. People living with HIV/AIDS will not be able to depend on state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) to help cover the cost of prescription drugs.
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Complete article at Examiner : http://exm.nr/fyc4zc
