Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings say that Republican legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act would hurt hospitals financially, including downgrades on their debt. Central culprits are that the legislation relies on per-capita Medicaid caps and tax credits instead of mandates for individual insurance.
Also, taking issue with GOP assertions, S&P said that the legislation would probably be more likely to leave leave older and sicker Americans unable to afford insurance than to coax younger and healthier people to buy coverage.
“The overall payor mix for providers would weaken as the number of people without insurance would most likely rise, as would the hospital sector’s level of bad debt and charity care expenses,” S&P said.
Moody’s, for its part, predicted that the legislation would reduce the number of people with health insurance and “increase bad debt and uncompensated care costs,” by freezing Medicaid expansion as of 2020.
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