Healthcare reform 'nullification' costly

BOISE, Idaho, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Efforts to "nullify" U.S. healthcare reform could cost the state of Idaho billions of dollars and the loss of thousands of healthcare jobs, the AARP says.

"AARP understands that not everyone supports the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Jim Wordelman, state director for AARP in Idaho, says in a statement. "But we need to be guarded against short-sighted approaches against the law that could be very hurtful to Idaho citizens and extremely costly to the state."

The Idaho state attorney general's office has said efforts to nullify the federal healthcare law are unconstitutional and put the state at risk of losing large amounts of federal funding -- but Idaho lawmakers moved the bill, sending it to the full House for a vote, Woodman says.

AARP released a report, "Nullification-By-The-Numbers," which it says explains what's at stake:

-- 18,000 seniors, who've hit the prescription drug coverage gap in Medicare, "doughnut hole," could lose relief provided by the federal law.

-- 6,520 uninsured state residents under age 26 could not stay on their parent's insurance plans.

-- 212,000 older Idahoans would lose free preventative health screenings through Medicare.

-- 857,000 Idahoans (Idaho population is about 1.5 million) could face being kicked off their healthcare plans once they hit the lifetime limits the law currently eliminates.

-- $1.5 billion loss in federal matching funds for Medicaid, resulting in healthcare job loss.