Supporters of the Affordable Care Act say the Senate’s replacement bill is just as bad for Arizona as the House version.
That criticism comes as senators gear up to debate the bill in the coming days.
It’s not clear yet whether Arizona’s senators will get behind the bill, but both will have to contend with how it affects Medicaid in their state. Like the House version, the Senate’s bill would restructure the federal program so funding is capped. It also limits the growth of Medicaid and eventually phases out the expansion, which has added more than 400,000 people to the rolls in Arizona.
Supporters of the bill argue it will give states more flexibility to run their programs, but Rodd McLeod with the Alliance for Healthcare Security says that’s a misnomer.
“They are going to give states less money, then they say to the state okay you have two million people you want to cover, we are going to limit the amount of money you have to pay for their care so now we are going to give you more flexibility to decide who to kick off," McLeod said.
It’s expected that the Congressional Budget Office will release its score of how the bill would impact health-care coverage and funding next week.
