Health “Extenders” Agreement a Step Backwards
cbpp.org
CBPP released a statement ([link removed]) today from President Robert Greenstein on the end of year funding package. Below are excerpts.
By repealing three major tax provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the new health extenders agreement between Congress and the Trump Administration takes a big step backwards ([link removed]) .
At a moment when policymakers should focus on reducing health costs and raising revenues to expand health coverage, this legislation repeals an important cost-reducing measure and sacrifices hundreds of billions in revenue.
Altogether, repealing these taxes will reduce revenues by nearly $400 billion over the next ten years — and far more in later decades – without offsetting the cost.
With the economy strong, policymakers should use budget resources to make productive investments, narrow poverty and inequality, or moderate projected growth in debt relative to the economy. The new agreement ([link removed]) , in contrast, swells future deficits and debt without making productive improvements in return.
On a positive note, the package avoids the Medicaid funding cliff ([link removed]) that Puerto Rico and other territories would otherwise face early next year. But it falls significantly short of the bipartisan and bicameral agreements reached in recent months to improve Medicaid funding in Puerto Rico and the other territories.
Puerto Rico and the territories need stable funding over as long a period as possible to bolster their Medicaid programs, which currently lack sufficient funding to provide Medicaid coverage comparable to the coverage provided on the mainland.
Read the full statement ([link removed])
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Contact: Caroline Anderson-Gray (mailto:
[email protected]?subject=CBPP%20Email%20Response) , 202-408-1080, Director of Digital Strategy
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