The House on Thursday voted 217-213 to replace the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare with the American Health Care Act.
Despite changes made so that the bill would pass, it will still negatively impact millions of Americans. And none of the provisions in the AHCAtake effect until 2018, with most of the changes not actually occurring until 2020 and any significant impacts being seen until then after, incidentally, midterm elections will take place in November 2018.
Notably, the new bill could harm people with preexisting conditions. Under Obamacare, an insured could not be denied coverage or treatment or charged a more expensive rate due to a preexisting condition. An amendment from New Jersey Rep. Tom MacArthur for the AHCA, however, allows states to opt out of this requirement. States that obtain a waiver will instead have to provide high-risk insurance pools to alleviate the extra costs $8 billion over five years, which experts say is nowhere near enough.
