Jean Hendrix: Have you forgotten that before ACA, medical bills bankrupted millions

There is nothing in the current Republican healthcare bill that even pretends to make healthcare more accessible and affordable. Good healthcare is not even a talking point for Republicans. They want to lower taxes on the very rich and they don’t care who suffers in the process.

We had “free market” health care before the ACA and it proved a disaster. The No. 1 reason for personal bankruptcy was medical bills. Millions of people had no health insurance or such crummy insurance that even basic procedures and screenings were not covered.

It took the action of Congress to make the insurance companies accountable for actually insuring people. The ACA requires insurance plans cover essential medical benefits. The ACA requires insurance companies spend at least 85 percent of premiums on health care, not administrative costs. The ACA expanded Medicaid to millions of people. The ACA covers people with pre-existing conditions. Millions more Americans have access to care under the ACA. The ACA added good paying jobs to an important sector of the economy.

Why would Republicans want to shut down the ACA? Because they want a huge tax cut for the very rich.

This story was originally published July 17, 2017 at 1:27 PM with the headline "Jean Hendrix: Have you forgotten that before ACA, medical bills bankrupted millions."