Silke Jasso
In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan defended his healthcare plan, the American Health Care Act, amidst ongoing criticism that the plan will abandon millions of Americans and make healthcare unaffordable for them.
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Host Chris Wallace used an example from the Congressional Budget Office report that said a 64-year-old making $26,500 annually would owe up to $1700 in out-of-pocket expenses under the Affordable Care Act; that same 64 year-old would owe up to $14,600 in out-of-pocket expenses under Ryan’s American Health Care Act, over half their income.
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“You said part of that is ‘this is what freedom looks like,'” said Wallace. “What they’re saying is, this isn’t ‘freedom,’ this isn’t people voluntarily deciding not to have health insurance, it’s that your plan makes it unaffordable for people.”
“There are three things I would say,” began Ryan, defending his plan. He called the cited Affordable Care Act plan “mythical,” insisting that it “wouldn’t exist” and was not sustainable in the long run, and he claimed the comparison between the two plans and costs was an “apples to oranges” comparison.
