Though House Republicans late Monday finally revealed their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act after months of speculation, uncertainties still abound about how much the plan might save or cost the federal government, and how many may lose or gain insurance because of it.
But health policy professionals, experts and advocates in Virginia have already noted that the newly proposed American Health Care Act, while retaining many of the most popular patient protection parts of the ACA, will shift costs onto the patient.
”Unfortunately what’s happening here is they’re shifting costs away from the government and away from the insurers, but they’re shifting them back onto consumers, and that was one of the problems with the marketplace prior to the Affordable Care Act,” said Kirsten Sloan, vice president for federal policy with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
