After anxiously awaiting the results from the U.S. Senate, Emily Welch was relieved to discover the Graham-Cassidy bill would not go to a vote.
Tuesday afternoon, the healthcare bill, which attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, was pulled from a vote by majority leader Mitch McConnell, according to Politico. Any new attempts to pass healthcare reform will come after the Sept. 30 deadline.
Welch, a UF medical student and president of the UF American Medical Association medical student section, said the bill would have had an affect on her career, had it gone through.
“It’s a significant part of our future, and how we’re going to be able to practice,” the 23-year-old said. “This would have been a huge blow to public health measures that have been going on sort of in the background for some time since the ACA passed. It was a serious weight off my shoulders.”
The bill aimed to distribute federal money to the states in the form of block grants, which would be distributed to residents via the state government, Welch said. The language of the bill would have allowed state governments, not doctors, to decide what is or is not a preexisting condition, she said.
She said when the states decide instead of doctors, they can deny certain preexisting conditions.
Diana Halloran, a UF medical student, was concerned that the Congressional Budget Office did not release an estimate of the effects on the healthcare industry the bill would have had. The office said on its website it would take weeks to provide such figures. The bill would have gone to a vote in the next 4 days.
“They didn’t even wait for a CBO score,” Halloran, 24, said. “That’s really important, you know it will let you know how many people could potentially become uninsured immediately, and over a long period of time.”
The bill was opposed by several professional medical organizations, including the AMA, which stated in a press release that the bill would “destabilize health insurance markets, and decrease access to affordable coverage and care.”
“It’s just really scary to me that so many people can lose access to health care,” said Dorreen Danesh, a UF medical student.
While some students opposed the bill because of its lack of provisions, others like Brian Reddy, a 20-year-old UF political science junior, hope for a total repeal of the ACA.
“I think it’s morally wrong for government to be in the business of healthcare,” he said in an interview before the bill was pulled from a vote.
Reddy, a member of the UF College Republicans, said government has no place in the healthcare marketplace, and individuals must be responsible for acquiring their own health insurance.
Even though the bill was pulled, Reddy said he is hopeful that the legislature will be able to pass something that repeals the ACA more effectively.
“Do I think that that’s going to happen between now and the midterm elections? No,” he said.
Despite the fact Reddy did not like the initial bill, he said it’s death does not necessarily come as a relief. He’s hoping for a successful bill in the future.
“If it had passed, it would have been steps in the right direction,” he said. “I would just go with the word ‘optimistic.’”
