is obamacare being repealed

this is me, and this is my sister, annie she’s 28, mom to two cats, freelance designer and part-time grad student there’s just something about freelancing. i feel a lot of creative freedom she’s also had had chronic back pain, neck pain, migraines for as long as she can remember she health insurance through obamacare, and without it, there’s no way she’d be able to affordall her doctors’ appointments and medications and because she doesn’t have to depend onan employer for insurance, she’s able to

work for herself the flexibility works really well with being able to make my appointments around my work schedule on election night, my first thought was, "what does this mean for my sister?" donald trump, elected president of the united states and for the 22 million other people who get their health insurance through obamacare “today, after over a year of debate, health insurance reform becomes law in theunited states of america”

“we’re gonna try and repeal this” “there’s only one way to fix obamacare, and that’s a full repeal” “can we replace this law, completely, in the next presidency, in the next congress. that is our goal, and the answer is yes wecan.” "when we win on november 8, we will be able to immediately repeal and replace obamacare” obamacare is a big law, with lots of different parts

and there are some parts that trump and republicansin congress say they want to keep. for example: before obamacare, companies couldrefuse to sell insurance to people with lots of health problems. obamacare says they can’t do that anymore,and trump and the republicans say they want to keep it that way. the problem is, this piece of the law thatthey like only works because of another piece of thelaw that they don’t like...a piece they’ve promised to get rid of that’s the part of the law that says youhave to have health insurance, or pay a fine.

for health insurance to be affordable, youneed a lot of healthy people to sign up for every one sick personthat’s because health insurance is worth more to sick people, and they’ll pay morefor it, which pushes up premiums for everyone. the healthy people in the pool help keep thosecosts down. if trump and the republicans get rid of theindividual mandate, which they say they will, a bunch of healthy people are going to stop buying insurance, premiumsgo up, more healthy people leave until all that’s left are sick people whoare really expensive to cover. without a bunch of healthy people to offsetthat cost, insurance companies would pull

out of the marketplace we know this because in some places, it was already happening before the election. too many healthy people were choosing thefine over health insurance as a result, states like alabamaand oklahoma only have one insurance plan on the market--and without competition, premiumsshot up last year. if trump and the republicans get rid of theindividual mandate, we’ll likely see this happen in other states. like texas, where my sister lives

so, what might her life look like under the republican replacement for obamacare? right now, obamacare makes it illegal forinsurance companies to charge her more just because she has health problems.under paul ryan’s plan, that changes. insurance companies would be allowed to chargeher more if she ever let her coverage lapse. instead of forcing insurance companies tooffer affordable plans to people like my sister, paul ryan’s plan would fund “high-riskpools,” insurance plans specifically for people with lots of health problems, but wedon’t know exactly who would be eligible for them.

these pools were around before obamacare--and without healthy people to balance the sickpeople, these plans end up being about twice as expensive for participants. paul ryan’s plan does call for refundabletax credits to help offset those costs. congressional republicans have tried gettingrid of the individual mandate before. but those votes were largely symbolicbut it’s real now. my sister has built a life for herself where she can takeprofessional risks go back to school , be her own boss, and not have to rely on an employer for health insurance.

now, she and 22 million others are askinghow long that will last.