The patient goes to a physiotherapy session. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
More than 113,000 Ohioans are opting out of health insurance in the federal marketplace because of a congressional decision requested by the Trump administration to allow premium tax breaks under the Affordable Care Act to expire, according to the health care group Protect Our Care.
An Ohio lawmaker, another doctor and a retired Ohioan said sinking enrollment in the Affordable Care Act due to the loss of federal aid could cause long-term problems in the state.
Ohio’s decline is the fourth-largest in the nation, behind North Carolina, Georgia and Florida learning from a group found. Nationwide, 1.2 million people opted out of the federal program.
The expiration of these tax breaks meant an escalate in the amount Americans pay for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, sometimes doubling the amount needed to pay for that insurance.
“In my opinion, from my perspective, I have to pay $1,000 a month for the privilege of spending $10,000 a year on deductibles to have catastrophic coverage,” Ohio resident John Francis said during a virtual briefing hosted by Protect Our Care.
Francis is a retiree and thought the ACA would be a good option while waiting to qualify for Medicare at age 65. While he chose to continue with his insurance plan because he can afford it, he understands how quickly health insurance can become unavailable to Ohioans due to cost.
He said that seeing cuts to tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, along with cuts to Medicaid, that would amount to over $30 billion in losses for Ohioans over the next decade raises a “moral question” about how America should aid its own.
“If we are going to allow people to work full time and still be at the poverty level, then we should at least have the common decency to provide them with health care,” Francis said. “I don’t know how we can look at it any other way.”
Dr. Anita Somani, an obstetrician-gynecologist and state representative, said the expiration of the tax credit and the introduction of work requirements to Medicaid only have a negative impact on the health of the state and its residents.
“We are going to see health care being delayed,” she said.
In her practice, that would mean postponing prenatal care, mammograms, pap smears and other cancer screenings. It may also mean that pregnant women with high blood pressure may develop preeclampsia, which can lead to stillbirth.
“Everything indicates that health care costs will increase and people will get sick and die,” Somani said.
For Dr. Christopher Brown, an Ohio nephrologist, changes in federal health care could very well mean problems for his patients to get the care they need for strokes and end-stage renal disease.
“One of the things I really don’t like is people coming in with diseases that could have been prevented a long time ago,” Brown said.
The impact of losing coverage due to affordability could be significant, but Brown said the full consequences cannot yet be quantified.
Somani said expanding ACA subsidies and funding to aid low-income households, children who can employ their parents’ insurance until age 26, and people looking to expand their family could only be helpful to Ohio.
According to Somani, expiring tax credits and maintaining Medicaid cuts will worsen the state’s already precarious health situation.
“For the (Republican) party, which is supposed to be pro-family, these actions are the antithesis of pro-life,” she said.
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