A day before the Affordable Care Act deadline, Mayor Jim Kenney and City Controller Alan Butkovitz sent joint letters to three congressmen and two senators claiming more than 220,000 Philadelphia residents would lose their health insurance if Obamacare was repealed without an appropriate replacement.
Kenney and Butkovitz sent the letters to Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA 13th district), Rep. Bob Brady (D-PA 1st District), Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA 2nd District), Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) Monday. The mayor and city controller wrote that the total number of people who would lose their health insurance amounts to about 22 percent of Philadelphians between the ages of 18 and 64, according to data from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
“While the direct impact is evident for those who face losing their healthcare, the indirect impact is much greater as repealing the act would also mean a loss in hundreds of millions of dollars through Medicaid expansion funding,” Kenney and Butkovitz wrote. “This is money the city utilizes to fund more than a hundred healthcare entities and community organizations that provide mental health and substance abuse services for 517,000 Philadelphia County Medicaid recipients.”
Kenney and Butkovitz warned Philadelphia could see a large financial loss in important healthcare services that are critical in the fight against the opioid epidemic across Pennsylvania. They urged the five politicians to address the potential impact an Obamacare repeal with no replacement would have.
NBC10’s Drew Smith spoke with a local Republican about the mayor’s warning. He urged that everyone wait and hear about the replacement plan before jumping to conclusions.
