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Is your health insurance at risk? #AskHoward


VIDEO DESC & TRANSCRIPT: Howard A. Rosenblum is sitting at his desk. The NAD logo appears on bottom right corner as a watermark.

HOWARD: Your health insurance is at risk! This is a very serious issue. Congress has been trying to pass bills several times and they are trying again right now. This bill should not pass. This bill wants to change, cut, or stop what we all know as Obamacare or Affordable Care Act (ACA). This reform or repeal bill would make a lot of changes to the ACA. I will share four most important concerns, out of many reasons we should not support this bill, because of its terrible impact on the deaf and hard of hearing community.
1. Before the ACA was implemented, pre-existing medical conditions were not covered. Any health issues you had before access to health insurance were not covered by your health insurance. The ACA changed that so that any health issues you have is covered regardless of when you got them. This new proposed bill would cause a loss of coverage for people for any pre-existing health issues. Health insurance would only cover what health issues you have after getting coverage.
2. People who do not have access to income or other funds usually get health insurance through medicaid. This new bill proposes that a funding system that would gradually reduce support of medicaid. States could cover the difference of providing medicaid, out of their own budget if they wish but many states have funding problems. As a result, this new bill threatens medicaid, which affects a lot of people.
3. People who work but do not earn enough, often are unable to pay for private health insurance. The ACA offers funding to support those who need help to pay for insurance. This new proposal would reduce and eventually eliminate funding for those people who need it. As a result, both those who are on Medicaid and those who work but do not have funding would lose health insurance.
4. The ACA has mandates that require individuals and a companies to obtain health insurance coverage. The new proposal removes that requirement and leaves that to the decision of the individual and company. This is dangerous. With the ACA, people who are healthy or have health issues are all covered, and this ensures a stable insurance market that keeps costs down. If people who are healthy do not participate, then only the people who are sick or have health insurance are covered and the insurance coverage becomes much more expensive for people who need health care. This will also affect those healthy people who later need health care because their conditions were "pre-existing."
These four concerns are important. You need to contact your Senators and Representatives and tell them you oppose the repeal or reform of the Affordable Care Act. We want to keep the ACA so that everyone has access to health care. Thank you.

Video fades to a soft white background with several different font types showing “NAD” very quickly. Copyright video ends with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) logo centered. Blue text below the logo appears, “A production of the National Association of the Deaf (copyright) 2017 All Rights Reserved”.

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   CoolPJR Reply

   7 years ago

   ReplyTo:   NAD
   Title:   Oh boy