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Report: 380,000 Arizonans may lose Medicaid coverage under American Health Care Act

Posted at 5:27 PM, Mar 17, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-18 11:13:01-04

Arizona is likely to see more than 380,000 people lose their Medicaid insurance coverage and $2.5 billion in lower health care spending under the plan currently being pushed through Congress to replace former President Barack Obama's health care law.

A report by the state's Medicaid plan obtained by The Associated Press Friday shows keeping most of those people insured would cost the state nearly $500 million a year. In a Republican-led state where tax increases are nearly impossible to enact, that's extremely unlikely.

 

The report looks at the patients who gained coverage under a Medicaid expansion pushed through in 2013 by former Gov. Jan Brewer over opposition from many in her own party. It now covers about 400,000 Arizonans out of the 1.9 million covered by Medicaid in the state.