{"id":7052,"date":"2017-07-28T18:30:52","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T18:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7052"},"modified":"2017-07-28T18:30:52","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T18:30:52","slug":"aarp-senate-health-care-fix-doesnt-work-for-older-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7052","title":{"rendered":"AARP: Senate-Health Care \u2018Fix\u2019 Doesn\u2019t Work for Older Texans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"People<\/a>

People over 50 could see significant premium increases or benefit cuts in the latest version of the U.S. Senate\u2019s plan to overhaul health insurance. Photo: Hero\/GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Advocates for Texas seniors warn that if the U.S. Senate passes the new health-care plan revealed on Thursday, it could be both a financial and health disaster for older Texans.<\/p>\n

AARP predicts the\u00a0bill<\/a>, which could be voted on as early as next week, would raise annual health premiums for 50- to 64-year-olds as much as $20,000, five times the regular rate.<\/p>\n

It also cuts Medicaid, on which more than half of Texas nursing home residents depend.<\/p>\n

AARP Texas State Director Bob Jackson says Senate Republicans are asking the wrong questions in their attempt to \u201cfix health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing you\u2019ve got to do is get a strong sense of, \u2018Did the current law cause those costs to go up or, frankly, did the cost of health care cause them to go up?’\u201d he states. \u201cBecause there\u2019s a big difference there. Did the law create the problem, or is the health-care system just getting more and more expensive?\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican leaders updated the plan to address some senators\u2019 concerns, but not all of them. The biggest change would allow insurers to sell so-called \u2018bare bones\u2019 policies that don\u2019t meet the basic coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

The Congressional Budget Office is set to release its report on the proposal on Monday.<\/p>\n

Jackson says AARP and other groups are appealing directly to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, urging him to make sure the health care plan helps Texans \u2013 or to vote \u201cno\u201d if it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you only make decisions around health care about how somebody\u2019s going to make a profit, then you\u2019ve already started in the wrong place,\u201d Jackson stresses. \u201cYou need to start in the place that says, \u2018How do we most efficiently get the best care we can to everybody?’\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds other concerns about the health proposal include reviving the ban on covering pre-existing conditions, and a return to lifetime caps on insurance coverage.<\/p>\n

GOP leaders need 50 votes to pass a plan, but as of Thursday, at least half-dozen senators still voiced objections to parts of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0Advocates for Texas seniors warn that if the U.S. Senate passes the new health-care plan revealed on Thursday, it could be both a financial and health disaster for older Texans. AARP predicts the\u00a0bill, which could be voted on as early as next week, would raise annual health premiums for 50- […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7054,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7052\/revisions\/7054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}