Politics

Trump's Push to End Obamacare Could Possibly Hurt His Supporters

December 7th 2016

If the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, were even partially repealed new statistics have revealed who it would hit hardest.

"I Give Up"Keoni Cabral/Flickr - flic.kr

29.8 million people

A partial repeal of the ACA would leave approximately 29.8 million people without health insurance, according to a team of researchers at the Urban Institute.

In 2019 that number would rise to 58.7 million.

Donald TrumpGage Skidmore/Flickr - flic.kr

Furthermore, the people who would be hit hardest by the repeal would be working families. "Eighty-two percent of the people becoming uninsured would be in working families," Urban Institute states adding that 38 percent of those impacted would be between ages 18 to 34, and 56 percent of non-Hispanic whites. And most of adults left without insurance (80 percent) wouldn't have college degrees.

This is essentially the demographic that supported President-elect Donald Trump. In September, The Atlantic published a breakdown of Trump's voters and found that "more than 60 percent of Trump’s coalition is white and doesn’t have a college degree."

Nearly 30 million Americans who would be without health insurance would come with a big cost — "an extra $88 billion in uncompensated care in 2019 and an extra $1.1 trillion from 2019 to 2028," McClatchy DC reported.

Urban Institute reports that if Obamacare is repealed, "[...] the federal government would have to raise new taxes, substantially cut spending, or increase the deficit." Basically, there's no quick or easy fix.

Trump's plan for his Obamacare replacement is somewhat outlined in a PDF slightly over three pages on his website. But his goal is clear: "Repeal and replace Obamacare with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)" is his first bullet point on his site under "Donald Trump's vision."

Donald TrumpGage Skidmore/Flickr - flic.kr

How exactly he'll execute that plan seems to be a little murkier.

[H/T McClatchy DC]

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