A Democratic senator just alphabetically listed the pre-existing conditions that could cause people to pay more under the GOP health-care bill
Ahead of the House vote Thursday on the American Health Care Act, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) offered a little refresher on some of the pre-existing conditions that could cause people to "pay a lot more" for health insurance if the GOP bill gets passed.
Brown's alphabetical list spanned 11 tweets, and included everything from anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, to leukemia, heart disease, and cerebral palsy. Other pre-existing conditions included pregnancy, obesity, and migraines. Here's a handful of Brown's tweets — and these just span the first three letters of the alphabet (he stopped at the letter "u," with ulcers):
This week, Republicans put an additional $8 billion over five years toward covering insurance for patients with pre-existing conditions, and they've also tacked the MacArthur Amendment onto this version of the bill, which House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) claims protects people with pre-existing conditions. However, The Washington Post noted there is still "no guarantee that they will not face higher costs than under current law."
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Opponents of the bill also argue that the ObamaCare prohibition of insurance companies discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions is "gone or greatly weakened" in the AHCA, the Post explained. Proponents insist that it "remains intact, just in different form."
After laying out the list, Brown posited that "chances are" most people at least know someone who has "dealt with something (or multiple things) on this list." "Folks with pre-existing conditions shouldn't be charged more for health care," Brown tweeted. "It's as simple as that."
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