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It would likely be a wash for us as I expect our health care costs would increase but we would get a tax break. But I 100% don't support it despite the fact that it will likely not have a huge effect on my family.

Personally, our premiums and OOP expenses would go up due to preexisting conditions - I have migraines, my son has a congenital heart defect. Per the AHCA, I'd also have increased premiums as a woman and a rape victim with PTSD. And our household income is not high enough to benefit from the tax break.

Professionally, as a hospital social worker, we'll see an increase in readmissions due to patients not being able to afford their preventative care, prescriptions, DME, hospital after-care, etc. We would see more patients without insurance because hospitals cannot turn them away at the door. Hospitals will have to eat the cost of hospitalizations for uninsured, which could cause smaller hospitals to shut down due to being unable to maintain operating costs. When that happens, bigger health systems will bear an even greater burden of uninsured patients. Care would suffer as the census goes up, staff gets overwhelmed, etc.

tl;dr - Both bills spell disaster for me. I am making calls daily.

I can still our healthcare bills and premiums going up for sure. Also, birth control will most likely not be covered as well, so that's another added expense. My youngest is in Early Intervention with the state. I could see the costs going up even more since it's relatively covered through insurance. I already have to pay some out of pocket because our Governor is a jerk who likes a budget impasse 2 years long and many lost jobs and services.

@Adira: Yep, even with employer health insurance, it's covered through ACA. It's nice to have it covered. It feels like it gives me a choice in my own body's reproductive abilities and family making decisions. But, nope, the Republicans don't believe I'm capable of that. On top of that, we have a President hell bent on destroying the previous President's legacy.

@Adira: Thanks. I'm particularly hot about health care this morning. I just discovered that our state Medical Assistance has changed the criteria for inpatient psychiatric care. People now have to be actively psychotic and/or actively suicidal/homicidal in order to qualify for inpatient treatment. So if someone on an impulse, out of desperation/sadness/anger, took a handful of pills but is now not endorsing any suicidal thoughts and regrets what he/she did, insurance may not pay for him/her to go to inpatient treatment. It makes me sick to my stomach. The GOP better be happy with having blood on their hands.

I don't think it would affect me much at the moment. But I definitely don't support it. Who is to say what can happen in the future? Plus, I don't support it for what it does to other people or any of us in the future (since we don't know what health issues we may face later). Plus, surely it will affect family members and friends. I'm all for single payer system.

You can text Resist to 504-09 and it will help you compose and send a fax to your senators.

I feel like my only answer can be that I anticipate costs to increase. Even though I am relatively healthy, that could change in an absolute instant. I am very worried about leaving it up to the states to decide. A state line could be the difference between life and death for people.

I support a single payer approach.

This stuff is so complex it’s hard to say fully what the impacts will be. I don’t think healthcare costs will decrease for everyone until we get a real single payer solution. The m massive corporate tax breaks won’t help; I don’t see many corporations cutting costs simply because they get a corporate tax break. Shareholders #1, right? Why cut costs? They don’t have to.

My household income is under $250k a year, so we gain $0 for the repeal of the ACA tax levy on high income households. Whatever tax break we may get will be small because again, we don’t make over $250k a year and certainly will be offset big picture by the increased costs of hospitals again eating costs due to uninsured people utilizing ERs as healthcare, the proposed caps on federal medicaid payments will impact as costs will transfer to the states and state tax rates and more. The attempt to defund Planned Parenthood via this bill would also impact everyone as well, though I believe (and hope) that provision will fail.

How will it impact me personally? I gained 2 new pre-existing conditions under the House plan. Of course there will be repercussions ($$$$) for that. There is no reason to roll back protections unless there is something to be “gained” by doing so – the only thing to be gained are allowances to charge more $$ for coverage. Prior to ACA, my IUD was a little over $900 out of pocket (after what my insurance covered, which may have been nothing, I can’t remember). Under ACA, it was free. I’m due for a new one next year. I would assume that the costs have gone up since 5 years ago when I had the last one placed but if not there’s an additional $1k expense for my family for next year.

Additionally, my younger brother suffered a freak, catastrophic injury in high school that racked up almost $1 million dollars in medical bills. If lifetime caps are reinstated, he’s screwed. Completely screwed. As are millions of other Americans who did nothing but have the misfortune to have something outside of their control happen to them or to fail to be born to millionaires who could cover the expenses in cash.

I am expecting that healthcare would increase for everyone. The pre existing conditions would probably affect my family some, but not significantly. These things are so complex and I do not know if they are right or wrong. My mom was under obamacare and she ended up dropping it because she didn't have access to decent hospitals, compared to other individual market plans, to treat her cancer and premiums were expensive.

I think we wouldn't be affected since we have group coverage through our jobs. Most of the cuts affect those on the individual market. The hospital visits, etc. aren't covered 100% under the current plans and are pretty pricey co-pays until you hit your deductible so I doubt those are considered "essential services" like well checks, etc.

@alphagam84: As someone who works in healthcare and deals with insurances on a daily basis, I can almost guarantee you that your employer-sponsored group coverage would be effected. Maybe not right away, but private insurances tend to follow suit with Medicare/Medicaid regulations. We see it all the time. Medicare changes a regulation, and a few months later, so does Aetna/Blue Cross/etc. So as Medicare and Medicaid drop coverage, raise rates, change reimbursements, so will your private insurance.

I would not be directly affected since we don't live in the US, but I still pay taxes there and have the right to vote, so I wrote my republican senator. I'm deeply concerned about my extended family members, and well, everyone else too. Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege.

@emilye519: Yep, I feel this way too. My husband owns a small business so I carry all of our insurance through my employer

Though I expect it would have a minimal impact on my and my family's health (we're privileged and generally healthy), most of the patients I take care of would be FUCKED.

I'm not sure but even if the passage of this bill were going to put money in my pocket I'd still oppose it.

This article accurately sums up how I feel: http://huffp.st/hRdqytZ

@sunny: I think that's true, yes, as we age, our premiums will increase. Also, as employers are paying less and less, shifting the financial burden to those that are insured, that increases premiums. And general uncertainty in the markets! I think that's the a big, hidden factor that no one is talking about.

My main concern, though, is that if federal funding to Medicaid is cut and that burden is shifted to the states, many states will not be able to support those programs. People will go back to using hospitals as primary care physicians and that cost burden will be passed on to the consumers.

I really think we're solving the wrong problem in all of this. The answer isn't in fixing the insurance, the answer is in fixing the cost. Same applies in student loans. We need to address the cost of the education, not the loans.