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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

AARP Opposes Health-Care Replacement Plan

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Wednesday, March 15, 2017   

SEATTLE – Opposition to the GOP's proposed American Health Care Act is growing, including from organizations and even some Republican lawmakers. AARP is also speaking up against the current replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

Mike Tucker, volunteer state president for AARP Washington, says the flat tax-credit proposal in the plan amounts to an "age tax" that would increase premiums for older Americans. He says the bill would also cause the Medicare trust fund to dry up four years earlier than expected, pinching state budgets and pricing many seniors out of insurance.

"I don't see this bill as doing anything other than causing decline in both physical health and financial health for a large chunk of the U.S. population," he said.

Republicans who support the plan say it will make health care more affordable and reduce the deficit. This week's report from the Congressional Budget Office estimates it would reduce the deficit by more than $330 billion over the next decade. However, it also says 24 million people would lose health coverage in that same period.

A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans at retirement age living on $15,000 annual incomes could lose nearly $5,900 in tax credits per year to help pay for coverage under the proposed health plan.

Tucker says Republican promises of more choice under the new plan aren't enough.

"Choice without affordability is no choice at all," he added.

Under current rules, insurance companies can't charge older Americans rates any higher than three times more than other people for their health-care premiums. The plan weakens this regulation, and allows insurers to charge five times more to older Americans.

Tucker says GOP supporters of the bill should heed to what their constituents want.

"Listen to the American people who are in vast numbers, in fact, the majority of Americans, would prefer to see an improvement on the Affordable Care Act," said Tucker.


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