Local & State Officials Warn Repeal Of Obamacare Will Hurt Local Residents
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- While House Republicans were debating ways to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Casey Dye of Monroeville held up a picture of her daughter Chessie.
"She's 8, and at the age of 3 she was diagnosed with a severe speech and language delay," Dye said.
At a gathering of state health and elected officials at Children's Hospital, speakers warned of the consequences of repealing the Affordable Care Act.
"My husband lost his job in April, so if it wasn't for Medicaid, my daughter would be screwed, to put it bluntly," said Dye.
"Right now, she gets seven therapies a week. If we lose Medicaid, and we'd have to pay for that, that's over $2,400 a month."
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Officials said the proposed cuts in Medicaid hurt local children.
"Approximately half the children who come to Children's are covered by Medicaid," said Dr. Terrence Dermody, chief of pediatrics at Children's Hospital.
After 33 years in Canada, the Affordable Care Act also made it possible for Meg Taylor to return home to care for her 94-year-old mother in Point Breeze.
"With the ACA, we started to catch up with all the other countries that recognize health care as a basic human right," Taylor declared.
State officials said Trumpcare helps the healthy and wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
"Plans will also be skinnier, meaning they're going to cover less, and consumers will face high out-of-pocket costs when they go to get care," noted Teresa Miller, the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner.
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And Republicans, officials said, will shift costs to state taxpayers.
"If the state were to try to keep all the people on Medicaid expansion still having access to care, that would be an additional $2.4 billion," added Ted Dallas, Pennsylvania Secretary of Human Services.
That would be $2.4 billion state taxpayers would have to pay keep covering Pennsylvanians now covered under Obamacare.