President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act could cost Oklahoma big.
Doing away with premium tax credits and Medicaid expansion would mean a $140 billion drop in federal health care spending in 2019. Sara Collins with the Commonwealth Fund said Oklahoma’s share of that loss is $4.2 billion.
"This would have the effect of reducing state economic output by about $13 billion over five years," Collins said.
Thousands of jobs could also be lost.
"Up to about 23,000 jobs might be lost in the state in 2019 as a result of this major reduction in spending in Oklahoma," Collins said.
Just 6,900 of those would be health care jobs. The rest are in other sectors and won’t be supported after losses in health care workers and health spending.
Repeal would also cost 313,000 Oklahomans their health insurance, reversing some major health care gains in the state.
"The uninsured rate has fallen among adults and children in Oklahoma from about 20 percent in 2013 — so, the year before the major coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act went into effect — to about 16 percent in 2015," Collins said.
2019 is when experts think a potential repeal could take effect.
