With the devastating news that 24 million Americans will lose their health insurance by 2026 as a result of Trump’s American Health Care Act, The Fenway Institute of Fenway Health in Boston, Massachusetts released a policy brief outlining just how the Trump Administration’s proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could impact our LGBT community, people living with HIV (PLWH) & Black & Latino Americans. Sean Cahill, PhD, Director of Health Policy Research for The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health stated, “This bill holds potentially devastating consequences for low-income LGBT people, people living with HIV & Black & Latino people. The rates of uninsurance among LGBT people & people living with HIV have dropped dramatically since 2013, when the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion was implemented. While people of all races benefitted from the expansion of insurance access, on a per capita basis Black & Latino people benefitted disproportionately. Those gains could be completely erased if this bill becomes law.” Between 2013 & 2015, the rate of uninsurance among our LGBT community decreased from 22% to 11%. The percentage of people living with HIV who lacked any kind of health insurance coverage was 22% in 2012 & dropped to 15% in 2014. By 2020, the AHCA would revise eligibility criteria for enrollment in Medicaid so that in addition to being low-income, an enrollee would also need to be disabled or a parent of dependent children. People living with HIV would have to let their disease progress to AIDS in order to meet the definition of disabled. & many low-income LGBT people are not parents.
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