Today, a coalition of 36 non-partisan, non-profit patient advocacy organizations expressed concern over the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) recent estimates regarding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1). The CBO projects that the bill, combined with the failure to reauthorize the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) tax credits, could result in 16 million people losing their health coverage due to significant cuts to Medicaid and ACA marketplaces.
The coalition issued a statement emphasizing the potential impact on patients: “This bill is a direct attack on patients. Millions of Americans—including those with preexisting conditions—rely on Medicaid and the ACA marketplaces for high-quality, affordable healthcare. Instead of building on that progress, this bill would unravel it—mirroring the same devastating impact we fought to prevent during the 2017 repeal-and-replace efforts. The consequences for patients would be just as dire now as they would have been then."
The statement also highlighted concerns about the uncertainty surrounding enhanced ACA premium tax credits: “It is especially irresponsible to consider this legislation while the future of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits remains uncertain. These credits have been instrumental in keeping coverage affordable for low- and middle-income families, and CBO agrees that their expiration would only compound the drastic coverage losses caused by H.R. 1."
The coalition further criticized policy changes driven by fiscal considerations rather than expanding access to healthcare: "Policy changes to the ACA or Medicaid must be guided by a commitment to expanding access to high-quality, affordable health insurance—not driven by fiscal offsets or arbitrary cost-cutting measures. Despite many claims to the contrary, this bill threatens to deepen inequities, drive up out-of-pocket costs, and eliminate coverage for millions of people who simply cannot afford to go without care."
In conclusion, they urged Congress to reject H.R.1: “At a time when household and healthcare costs are already straining the budgets of working families, Congress must reject this reckless legislation and instead pursue policies that move our healthcare system forward—not backward.”
