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Statement

Another Trump Attack On Our Health Coverage and Care

October 23, 2018
Health Care

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and executive director of MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the Trump administration’s move to expand Health Reimbursement Arrangements.

“Last year, when Republican leadership in the United States Senate failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which for the first time made affordable health coverage available to tens of millions of people with pre-existing conditions, the Trump administration vowed to sabotage and roll back its protections. In a two-fold effort this week, the administration is making good on that unethical promise yet again with new federal policy on 1332 waivers and expansion of Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs).

“This new policy on 1332 waivers could gut the protections that ensure families have access to quality, affordable health care coverage in states that pursue the waiver. By undermining some of the most popular and crucial pieces of the ACA -- including protections for people with pre-existing conditions, a ban on annual lifetime limits and requiring essential health benefits like maternity care, mental health and substance abuse coverage -- this new policy is a clear end-run around the ACA. It will hurt families.

“Expanding HRAs is likely to drive up costs and undermine the comprehensive employer coverage millions of moms and families have now and will need in the future. The ACA requires group health plans to meet certain standards that HRAs can’t meet. These include a requirement to cover key women’s preventive health services without cost and a ban on lifetime and annual limits on coverage. Insurers would not have to cover essential benefits, like maternity care, at a time when the United States has the worst maternal death rate of any developed country, with Black women dying at three to four times the rates of white women.  This Trump administration move could mean that employees who currently have coverage that meets their needs and is paid for, in whole or in part, by their employers could have that coverage replaced with HRAs that result in them paying more for coverage that is less comprehensive.

“The Trump administration’s attacks on our nation’s health care will continue to erode coverage and drive up costs for families across the country.  It is cruel and irresponsible.”

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.