Brian Kline of Quakertown has a job that doesn’t come with health benefits and earns just above $11 an hour. He credits the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion with saving his life, after he was able to qualify for coverage and receive treatment for colon cancer. “Medicaid expansion saved my life and saved me from medical bankruptcy,” Kline said. “I’ll be holding vigil at Senator Toomey’s office because I want Senator Toomey to know my life is on the line.”
Health care advocates and people of faith will join with Brian and countless others like him across the state who could lose everything if the AHCA becomes law. While the parameters of the Senate legislation are not yet fully known to the public, it’s expected to mirror the house- passed AHCA.
The AHCA not only repeals the Affordable Care Act, but also makes deep and dangerous cuts to Medicaid — more than $830 billion in the next decade — which the Congressional Budget Office said would force states to either commit more resources or “reduce spending by cutting payments to health care providers, eliminating optional services, or restricting eligibility for enrollment.”