Health Care – Page 17

GOP Senate Led “Better” Care Act forgets to Provide Better Care

Today, Senate Republicans revealed their answer to health care reform by introducing legislation entitled the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA). This is the Senate’s response to the House passed American Health Care Act (AHCA). The 142 page proposal, drafted by 13 Republican Senators under a veil of secrecy, would dismantle the Affordable Care Act and result in a loss of health care coverage for millions of Americans. Republicans and Democrats have already expressed opposition to the bill.

Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Ted Cruz(R-TX), Ron Johnson(R-WI), and Mike Lee (R-UT) said in a joint statement that they are “not ready” to vote for the GOP health-care bill, but are open to negotiations. Former President Barack Obama also weighed in, calling the bill a “massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America.” President Trump promised a healthcare bill with “heart” calling the House bill “mean.”

At a press event held with Sens. Debbie Stabenow(D-MI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Jeff Merkley(D-OR) American Nurses Association(ANA) President Pam Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN stated ”The Senate’s health care proposal would be disastrous for our nation’s most vulnerable. We will not be fooled. This is not a promise kept. This is a promise broken. This proposal is heartless. We are nurses and we are worried about our patients. We will not stop fighting for them. We can—and must—do better.”

The response from providers, consumers, and industry was swift. While the Senate made changes to woo moderate Republicans within the caucus, they amounted to little more than window dressing.

Under the bill:
• Tens of millions of Americans would lose health insurance coverage, while millions more would see their premiums and out-of-pocket costs rise.
• Access to affordable coverage on the individual market would be further compromised with cuts to subsidies and a lower qualifying threshold for eligibility (Individuals at 400% of poverty eligible for subsidies under ACA, Senate bill lowers to 350%)
• Medicaid expansion would be rolled back over a 3 year phase-out period for expansion states between 2020-2023.
• The Medicaid program would be fundamentally restructured to a per-capita or block grant funding structure – shifting costs to already overburden state budgets.
• The Medicaid inflation rate would tied to the Consumer Price Index after 2025, an even lower growth rate than the House-passed bill.
• States could waive Essential Health Benefits, putting a critical set of health coverage protections at risk
• Waivers would allow states to undermine protection against discrimination for those with pre-existing conditions.
• And more than 2.4 million women getting care at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country would see their access to services disrupted. The bill defunds Planned Parenthood for a year.

For a more detailed summary and a side-by-side comparison of the Senate and House bills read our Health Policy one pager. As the Senate prepares to vote on this legislation next week, ANA will continue to fight for a better solution for health care, one that matches ANA’s core principles for health system transformation.

Lastly, it’s more important than ever for the Senate to hear from nurses. We’ve made it easy for you to call now! If we don’t make the phones ring off the hook, this bill will become law. And your patients will pay the price.

Another Poor Score

Today’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report confirms what we already suspected: despite last minute changes made prior to a misguided and party-line House vote, the American Health Care Act (AHCA) seriously threatens health coverage affordability, access, and care delivery, and would cause roughly 14 million individuals to lose coverage by 2018, and 23 million to lose coverage by 2026.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) remains opposed to the AHCA and urges the Senate to abandon the bill advanced by the House in favor of a more transparent process that truly aims to expand access to affordable quality care.

According to the report, the AHCA would allow for various waivers that would undermine protections for those with pre-existing conditions, and undercut access to essential health benefits for roughly one-sixth of the population. Taken together, these waivers would cause premiums to “vary significantly according to health status and the types of benefits provided, and less healthy people would face extremely high premiums,” according to the CBO. “Over time, it would become more difficult for less healthy people (including people with pre-existing medical conditions) in [states that make use of the waivers] to purchase insurance because their premiums would continue to increase rapidly.”

The bill also continues to pose a serious threat to those Americans who rely on Medicaid, a majority of whom are children. Rolling back state expansion of Medicaid would effectively cut off coverage for millions of low-income Americans and further upend the health care landscape.

Though today’s score was marginally better than the first assessment released in March, the negative consequences for those who need care most remain extreme. In particular, the CBO noted that “out-of-pocket spending on maternity care and mental health and substance abuse services could increase by thousands of dollars in a given year for” those not covered by group health insurance plans.

The ANA encourages the Senate to draft a comprehensive health care plan that protects Americans from being denied insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions and provides access to affordable health insurance coverage plans that offer a minimum standard of benefits. These include preventative services and screenings, inpatient and outpatient services, prescription drug coverage, mental health, maternity services, and chronic disease management.

The American Health Care Act Threatens the Health of Our Nation’s Children

As I covered previously, the U.S. House of Representatives on May 4, 2017, recklessly passed the American Health Care Act by a 217-213 vote. They did so with little transparency, thoughtful debate, or meaningful stakeholder input. Crucially, they also passed this bill without even knowing its potential impacts on the ability of Americans to access quality health care services. Based on an analysis of the previous version of the American Health Care Act, however, this bill would likely result in the loss of health care coverage for 24 million Americans, potential restrictions for 15 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, and $800 billion+ in Medicaid funding slashed over ten years.

According to a report released on May 18 by Avalere Health, children would be significantly impacted by the proposed Medicaid changes in the American Health Care Act. Funding for children on Medicaid would be slashed by up to $43 billion over ten years under a per capita cap plan, while it would be slashed by up to$78 billion under a block grant plan (read more about block grants here). While Medicaid is often discussed in terms of an entitlement and with a particular focus on the controversial Medicaid expansion, its impact on children’s health care does not receive nearly as much attention. Children represent the largest group of enrollees covered by Medicaid, and the program covers nearly half of all births in the United States. Medicaid provides crucial health care services to children and, under Early and Periodic, Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) requirements, these children cannot be denied necessary care. This health care (or lack of) impacts the health of the child for the rest of his or her life; a healthy child is more likely to grow into a healthy adult.

As we wait for the American Health Care Act to move to the U.S. Senate for consideration, the American Nurses Association encourages all 100 senators to consider the stakes of this bill for the health of our nation’s children. Access to quality health care for children not only ensures that they are healthy in the here and now, but also ensures that we are raising a healthy and productive generation of Americans who are able to lead productive lives to the best of their abilities. ANA also urges the Senate to reject the flawed American Health Care Act – which flies in the face of our stated health care reform principles – and to undertake a deliberative, thoughtful, and transparent process which produces a piece of legislation which ensures quality health care access to all Americans.

For more information on the latest from ANA’s Capitol Hill efforts, continue to follow us on our RNAction page and ANA’s Capitol Beat.