Dive Brief:
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The AARP is emerging as a key opponent to proposed plans that would relax age band requirements established by the ACA and transform Medicaid to block grants.
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AARP responded to a proposed bill that would eliminate age band requirements with a letter to Congress, saying the proposal would increase costs of older Americans and ultimately reduce coverage.
- In December, AARP sent a separate letter to congress to defend current age band requirements and to announce its opposition to plans that would block grant or cap Medicaid funding.
Dive Insight:
The ACA helped to reduce the number of uninsured Americans aged 50 to 64 by half. Now that Republicans in Congress are fighting to repeal and advancing health reform proposals that would likely undo some of this progress, AARP is fighting back.
The 3:1 age band restriction established by the ACA limits how much more payers charge older patients than they charge younger patients. Most states had previously allowed payers to charge older patients five times as much as they charge younger patients for similar plans. Shifting to a 5:1 age band restriction would increase yearly premiums for the average 64-year-old with a silver health plan by $2,100, according to the AARP. A Commonwealth Study published in September predicted this change would cause 400,000 older patients to lose coverage.
While Medicaid is more frequently associated with low-income individuals rather than the elderly, many of AARP’s constituents benefit from the public health program. In fiscal year 2012, Medicaid paid $140 billion for long-term care services and elderly patients accounted for 61% of this spending, according to the AARP Policy Book. That was before the ACA delivered additional funding to long-term care, home health care and community-based services that many elderly patients use. AARP has urged Congress to keep that funding.
AARP represents 38 million older Americans, “a demographic that happens to be an essential part of the Republican voting coalition,” Jonathan Cohn told the Huffington Post. If Republicans move forward with some of their health reform proposals, they risk starting a fight with AARP, which has considerable amounts of sway among that coalition.