AARP Urges Senate to Start From Scratch on Healthcare Bill

AARP sent a letter on May 15 to every member of the U.S. Senate urging them to start from scratch on the healthcare legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The letter comes as AARP also begins to inform its members how each House member voted on the bill. 

“The deeply flawed House bill would add an Age Tax, increasing healthcare costs by thousands of dollars each year we grow older, and put millions of American families at risk of finding healthcare unaffordable or unavailable,” said AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond. She told senators, “AARP urges you to ‘start from scratch’ and craft healthcare legislation that ensures robust insurance market protections, controls costs, improves quality, and provides affordable coverage to all Americans.”

AARP’s letter notes that big insurance companies could charge older Americans five times more than younger individuals–or even more–for coverage and could charge many Americans more than their take-home pay. “The median annual income for 50-64-year-old Americans is less than $25,000…. [The House health bill] would remove pre-existing condition protections and once again allow insurance companies to charge Americans more—we estimate up to $25,000 more—due to a pre-existing condition.” 

About 40 percent of older Americans, nearly 25 million people, have a pre-existing condition.

To read the full letter, visit www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/politics/advocacy/2017/05/senate-letter-ahca-5-15-17-11rp.pdf.

This article was adapted from information provided by AARP.