Democratic governors are calling on Congressional Republicans to leave the ACA intact, saying that repealing and replacing the healthcare law would impose a serious burden on state governments that use federal funding to extend access to medical care to low-income residents, reports The Hill.
Democratic Governors Dan Malloy, Conn., Jay Inslee, Wash., and Andrew Cuomo, N.Y., sent a letter Wednesday to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel, R-Ky., warning that repealing the ACA would mean 30 million Americans would lose healthcare coverage by 2019, as any repeal effort would affect Medicaid expansion, according to the report.
"Repeal would throw millions of our residents off their health coverage, shift enormous costs to state governments — blowing a hole in state budgets — and cause economic uncertainty for our states' businesses, hospitals and patients," the governors wrote, according to The Hill.
Washington Gov. Inslee said preserving the ACA is Democratic governors' top short-term priority, according to the report.
"Our first obligation is to not allow the Republicans to pull off this scam, the healthcare equivalent of Trump University, by repealing this healthcare without a real replacement," Gov. Inslee said, according to The Hill. "It is a scam."
Republican leaders in Congress have said they hope to pass a repeal of the ACA in the early days of President-elect Donald Trump's presidency, but the repeal would not come into effect for a few years, until Congress decides on a replacement.