Attorney General Becerra: Lives of Californians Hang in the Balance as Trump Aims to Keep Campaign Promise

Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued the following statement after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) once again showed the Republican repeal bill would have devastating effects by stripping away coverage from 23 million working families, seniors, women and children in California and across the country: 

“Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans want to bring us back to the days when health care was only for the healthy and wealthy. How does having fewer people able to afford health care help anyone? This is President Trump’s and House Republicans' brave new world. Less health care, less money in their constituents' pockets.  

“As Attorney General, I’m using every tool at my disposal to protect access to health care for Californians. Obamacare works for Californians. Let’s move forward, not backwards.”

BACKGROUND

Last week, Attorney General Becerra took legal action to challenge the Trump Administration and protect health care access for millions of Americans, including more than five million Californians. He is leading 15 attorneys general in seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives that undercuts the affordability of health insurance plans under the ACA. The Republican bill repeals these cost-sharing subsidies.

An earlier version of the Republican repeal bill would have led to 4.9 million Californians losing coverage and out-of-pocket costs increasing by an average of $4,000 in more than half of California counties, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Commonwealth Fund found California would lose 336,000 jobs in the state in 2019 alone as a result of the legislation.

Since the inception of the ACA, the number of Californians without health insurance has fallen from 17% of the population in 2013 to 7.1% in 2016, an historic low. Over 50% of the individuals and families that receive coverage on Covered California, the state’s exchange, benefit from the subsidies. California has proven that the ACA works when state leaders make an earnest effort to make it work.

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