A version of this appeared in all editions of the Sky Hi News, June 28, 2017
If you agree with Donald Trump the House Trumpcare bill was mean, the Senate version is even meaner. The GOP Congress bills are as moral as the fat kid taking candy from a baby.
The GOP's sales pitch: These bills are ""patient centered". What they really are is taxpayer centered, a way to give $600 billion tax relief to upper income and medical providers paid for by taking away quality affordable insurance from 22 million (14 million in 2018) middle income and the poor and defenseless by 2026 The difference is deficit reductions. Timing of the worst impact is after the 2020 election cycle to avoid the wrath of voters who will personally feel the pain then. Sneaky of them.
The Senate Trumpcare bill cuts $34 billion more deeply into Medicaid in removing expansion and cutting traditional Medicaid than the House bill's $800 billion slash. To pay for over a $600 billion tax relief to the wealthy and some medical providers, the GOP Congress bills take money for health care and insurance benefits from those who need it the most. Medicaid is the prime health care safety net: 75 million, or 20% of Americans, are on Medicaid now; 39% of those on Medicaid are kids.The national average is 65% of nursing home residents are on Medicaid. Nearly half the baby deliveries in this country are covered by Medicaid. There are 350,000 Coloradans on Medicaid , some whose insurance could be put in jeopardy .Most rural health hospitals depend heavily on paying patients on Medicaid to cover costs. This has serious implications for both Summit and Grand county health providers and facilities.
For those not on Medicaid, patients are getting baited and switched. Secretary of HHS, Tom Price on Sunday talk makes a pitch the GOP Trumpcare bills will be patient centered because patients can choose the kind of insurance they want. : The 22 million losing their insurance will have no choice of anything. Price claims consumers will get lower premiums. How? They bait patients with lower premiums and switch to them to plans without some they required essential benefits but could not afford to include in their plan . Between 2018 to 2020 premiums will rise 20% but there after 2020 falling 20% because the benefits will be cut so much,. This applies to all insurance, including employer insurance. The logic is similar to if you just paid for the brown bag and small fries without the usual hamburger, the cost of a fast food lunch would certainly go down. After 2020, forget the hamburger .
Depending on what box you check for coverage of once included essential benefits could mean you gamble either you or anyone in your family in the future would not have cancer or get addicted to drugs or end up in the ER, and you can pay full price for your annual physical and cancer screenings and prescription drugs.
Another GOP screw to patients is to restore the lifetime cap on coverage . In the middle of cancer treatments, you could run out of insurance. GOP's alleged coverage for pre-existing conditions would be meaningless if you do not have paid for chemo drug coverage and other benefits.. Older citizens between ages to 65 can be charged 5 times more than the younger.
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Additional comments:
Let the Senators' votes be registered just as the House members have theirs published already. Then there should be no question then where Colorado Senator Cory Gardner stands in the Trumpcare bills. The most important question any pollster can ask of voters is does X candidate or the party care about me. The GOP is making it clear they do not care about either you or your relatives or your neighbors who will be hurt with their Trumpcare legislation. They care more about reducing taxes on the wealthy.
What could happen is that the reaction to the hardships this legislation causes and the burden it puts on state budgets and working near poor families, alternatives such as Medicare for All will gain popularity. In the meantime, they can fix the problem with the exchanges by allowing counties without any health insurer or only one participating in the exchanges inmostly rural counties, by giving consumers the opportunity to buy insurance either through Medicare or the same federal plan to which Congresspeople subscribe. There also should be a push to require drug companies to compete for Medicare and Medicaid prescription drug business. .
http://time.com/4833408/american-medical-association-mitch-mcconnell-healthcare-bill/
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/immoral-senate-healthcare-bill
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/us/politics/senate-leaders-unveil-bill-to-repeal-the-affordable-care-act.htm
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/ahca-senate-bill-preexisting-conditions/531375/
https://www.benefits.gov/benefits/benefit-details/1621
https://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/il/fs10r_homes.pdf
www.medicaid-help.org/Eligibility/Colorado
http://khn.org/news/deep-cuts-to-medicaid-put-rural-hospitals-in-the-crosshairs/
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/06/22/533942041/who-wins-who-loses-with-senate-health-care-bill
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2017-06-07/gop-medicaid-cuts-hit-rural-america-hardest-report-finds
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-senate-hidden-20170623-story.html
The hit to both Medicaid expansion added to the Trump budget plans that cut traditional Medicaid, too, come to cutting total Medicaid in half. That observation was made by Steve Rattner on MSNBC June 22,2017
That this is Paul Ryan's dream bill has deep and long history. The last time he tried to cut the safety net, even the Catholic Bishop's called his proposal immoral. From my posting on 4/12/ 2014:
WHO SPEAKS FOR THE POOR
