Washington D.C. – Today, the latest Consumer Price Index revealed that inflation soared to 4.2% in May from a year ago — the highest level in three years. Overall consumer costs are up 0.5% compared to just the month before. And the already-sky-high cost of medical care jumped another 0.3 percent in May, nearly a year after Donald Trump and Republicans like U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY-17), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-2), and Nick LaLota (R-NY-1) made the largest cuts to health care in American history through the Big Ugly Bill, slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations.
“While working Americans keep waiting for the Trump-GOP tax giveaway to billionaires and big corporations to trickle-down to anyone else, affordable health care gets further out of reach for millions,” said Brad Woodhouse, President of Save My Care. “Donald Trump and Republicans like Reps. Lawler, Garbarino and LaLota promised prices would plummet by rewarding tax breaks to those who need them least while taking away access to health care from those who need it most. Yet, nearly a year after the Big Ugly Law was signed, inflation is at a three-year high. Reps. Lawler, Garbarino and LaLota may insist the Republican-made health care affordability crisis was all worth it – but that’s only true for Donald Trump’s family, billionaire friends and corporate donors who reaped all the Big Ugly Bill rewards on the backs of everyday Americans.”
Top 20 Ways Donald Trump Has Hiked Health Care Costs No Thanks To His Republican Rubber-Stamps in Congress:
- Passed legislation kicking 15 million Americans off their health care, burying them in out-of-pocket costs, and drowning them in medical debt.
- Doubled and tripled premiums for millions of hardworking Americans, including small business owners, farmers, and older adults by gutting tax credits for working families.
- Made the largest cuts to health care in history and skyrocketed the burden of uncompensated care, which will likely shift billions of dollars in additional costs to people with employer-based health insurance.
- Gutted over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA, shuttering hospitals and raising prices by an average of $500 per hospital stay at nearby facilities that remain open.
- Put hundreds of hospitals at risk of closing and vulnerable to consolidation and private equity firms, which will expand monopolies and drive up costs.
- Made health insurance too expensive for Americans who buy insurance on their own, causing 1 in 5enrollees in healthcare.gov states to drop coverage.
- Funneled millions of families into reduced coverage that will force them to pay thousands more each year in health care costs.
- Raised deductibles by an average of 37 percent for people buying insurance on their own.
- Robbed 11 million low-income Americans of zero-dollar premiums.
- Finalized a rule expanding plans that force families to pay an average of $10,000 before insurers pay a single dollar.
- Forced over 1.3 million low-income seniors to pay thousands more each year in premiums and out-of-pocket costs by overturning a regulation.
- Hiked the cost of prescription drug coverage for seniors.
- Handed Big Pharma a multibillion-dollar giveaway, allowing them to charge seniors whatever they want for more drugs.
- Delayed Medicare’s negotiation of the prices of blockbuster cancer drugs, Keytruda and Opdivo, which would have saved seniors with cancer more than $3,000 each year.
- Stopped seniors from being able to purchase popular generic drugs for only $2.
- Instituted ill-advised tariffs that are skyrocketing the cost of premiums and medical devices.
- Boosted Medicare Advantage funding by $13 billion, giving a raise to a program known for rampant overpayments, coverage denials, and limited provider networks.
- Drove an estimated 4.6 million Americans into medical debt and overturned a regulation that would have protected Americans’ credit scores from being affected by medical debt.
- Overturned a rule that would make it easier for working families to enroll in Medicaid, leaving an estimated one million Americans without affordable care.
- Terminated 90 percent of the funding that helps Americans navigate the marketplace and enroll in affordable coverage that meets their needs.
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