SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Tuesday the Republicans’ health care replacement proposal for the Affordable Care Act moves health care backward. But the state’s only republican member of Congress voiced strong support for it.
In a statement, the Democratic governor said Tuesday that since the Affordable Care Act - also known as Obamacare - took effect, Oregon’s uninsured rate has dropped from 17 percent to 5 percent, with 95 percent of Oregonians now insured. She predicted the Republican plan would reduce Oregonians’ access to care and increase costs for women and seniors.
Under the Republican bill the way subsidies are offered for people who buy their own health care would be changed. Some people with lower incomes would see smaller subsidies, while some middle-income customers would get more support.
The bill would also cap the expansion of Medicaid in 2020 and change the way the program is funded.
Oregon Congressman Greg Walden, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee that released the proposal, wrote in an editorial that the plan “will rescue those hurt by ObamaCare’s failures and lay the groundwork for a patient-centered health-care system.”
Walden wrote the editorial in the Wall Street Journal with Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee that also released the Republican proposal on Monday.
The House and Senate have yet to vote on it. House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Tuesday he “can guarantee” the proposal’s supporters will have the 218 votes needed for passage in the House.
Brown said the bill “represents a radical change that is shortsighted and moves health care backward, not forward. It would reduce Oregonians’ access to care and increase costs for women and seniors.”
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