NEW REPORTS: GOP’s “Skinny” Repeal Plan Would Drastically Raise Premiums and Cause Massive Coverage Losses

281,950 Tennesseans Could Lose Coverage in 2018

(Nashville, Tennessee) – Amid predictions that Senate leadership will introduce a “skinny” version of healthcare repeal as the final bill that senators will vote on, two reports show just how devastating this version would be for healthcare coverage in Tennessee.

The first report, from The Century Foundation (TCF), estimates that 281,950 Tennesseans would lose coverage in 2018 under this bill.

The second report, from The Center for American Progress (CAP), predicts that the bill will raise premiums for Tennesseans by an average of $1,543, with a 60-year-old Tennessean facing a benchmark premium increase of $2,620 in 2018. Premiums for a family of four would increase by $3,661.

Experts warn that “skinny” repeal, which reportedly repeals the individual and employer mandates and the medical device tax, would “jeopardize consumer choice in the individual market by creating chaos and uncertainty for issuers in the marketplace and increasing premiums.”

“This is just the GOP’s latest secret scheme to rip care away from millions,” said Dr. Thomas Phelps, a Tullahoma family physician and spokesperson for the Alliance for Healthcare Security. “Every failed version of their health care plan to date would raise costs, torpedo insurance markets, and leave millions without coverage. It’s time that Republican senators listen to the American people and abandon this secretive process, drop their partisan repeal, and work with Democrats to keep what works and improve what doesn’t in our healthcare system.”