Belleville, Ill. – In an effort to fight against the catastrophic effects a proposed federal healthcare overhaul would have on the most vulnerable, state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, is supporting a resolution that opposes the Republican-introduced American Health Care Act.

“Washington politicians and insiders are meeting behind closed doors to secretly rewrite the health-care law with no public input,” Hoffman said. “Taking away the health-care of more than 20 million working families, all to give an unprecedented tax-break to millionaires and billionaires, is bad policy and morally bankrupt.”

House Resolution 445 notes that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 24 million people would lose their healthcare coverage if the Republican federal proposal is implemented. In addition, the healthcare plan would dramatically slash Medicaid funding by approximately $880 billion over a period of 10 years. In Illinois, such cuts would mean a $40 billion reduction in Medicaid spending over the same period, affecting an estimated one million Illinois residents who currently have coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

The Republican health plan would also strip a provision that prevented insurance companies from denying coverage for a pre-existing condition. Hoffman voted for House Bill 2959 this spring to preserve this provision in Illinois if the federal changes occur.

“Rather than completely gutting the health-care law and eliminating access to treatment for millions of Americans, we need to work toward improving the current law to lower costs and improve care,” Hoffman said. “The health and well-being of families in the Metro-East and across Illinois should come first and I urge the governor to publicly speak out against this corporate, Washington-insider plan that decimates health care for working families.”