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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Report: ACA Repeal Devastating, Deadly for PA

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Friday, January 20, 2017   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement in hand will cause massive losses of health insurance and jobs and a huge increase in Pennsylvania's budget deficit, according to a new report.

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center estimated that, altogether, more than 1 million people in the state no longer would have insurance. Center director Marc Stier said that includes those who benefited from the expansion of Medicaid as well as those who get subsidies to help buy their policies through the health-insurance marketplace.

"And a lot of people who bought health insurance outside the exchange will lose it," he said, "because by leaving some provisions in and repealing others, Congress is going to create havoc in the non-group insurance market."

The report predicted more than 137,000 people would lose their jobs because of the repeal, and it would add more than $1 billion a year to the state's structural deficit over the next five years.

The loss of federal health-care dollars flowing into Pennsylvania will have huge impacts outside the health-care industry, Stier said, since cuts in services and job losses will send shock waves through the entire state economy.

"The ripple effect will cost the state $75 billion in Gross Domestic Product," he said, "and it will cost state government and local governments $2.4 billion in tax revenues."

Republicans intent on repeal insist the ACA will be replaced by something better.

Congress already has passed budget resolutions calling for legislation to roll back significant portions of the health-care law, but Stier noted that, so far, no replacement bill has been introduced.

"There's no question that improvements could be made in the Affordable Care Act," he said, "but let's make those improvements. Let's not throw out something that benefits so many Pennsylvanians to such a large extent now."

The report is online at pennbpc.org.


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