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It Can’t Be Fixed: Policy and Politics in the Republican Health Care Bill
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Category: Health Care
PA House GOP Stealth Attack on Medicaid
**UPDATE 7/11/17 – 4:45 PM** The House passed the bill through to the Senate 102-91. The Senate must again vote on the bill as amended PA House Republican leaders are trying to force Pennsylvania to seek federal waivers for our Medicaid program that would establish requirements that Medicaid recipients either be working or searching for a job and that that ask them to pay premiums or higher co-pays for their insurance. These ideas were part of Governor Corbett’s plan to expand Medicaid, which Governor Wolf rightly rejected. Now, the House will vote on these terrible provisions as part of the budget code (instructions for implementing the budget) for 2017-18 after it was added as an amendment in the House Rules Committee. What’s the objection to work requirements or premiums for Medicaid? First, support for a work or job search requirement is based on a misconception that there are a large… Continue reading
PRESS MEMO: New Estimates of the Loss of Federal Funding to Pennsylvania from the Senate Health Care Bill
The Manatt Health Group and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released a study on the impact of the Senate health care bill, the Better Reconciliation Act of 2017, on the states. Their estimates of the impact of the bill confirms our recent study showing that Pennsylvania will suffer devastating reductions in federal funding for Medicaid. It also offers some more fine-grained detail on the nature of these reductions. MEMO To: Editorial Page Editors, Editorial Board Members, Columnists, and Other Interested Parties From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Date: July 7, 2017 Re: New Estimates of the Loss of Federal Funding to Pennsylvania from the Senate Health Care Bill The Manatt Health Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released a new study of the impact of the Senate health care bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, on the states. Their estimates of the impact of the bill confirms… Continue reading
Senate Bill Raises Marketplace and Employer-based Premiums for Most Pennsylvanians
We have been focused recently on the impact of the Senate health care bill on Medicaid, mainly because the dangers of both the House and Senate bills to Medicaid have not been well known, and because the Senate bill is far worse than the House bill. So, in this and next post I want to remind you that if you purchase health insurance on the exchanges / marketplaces or receive it from your employer, the Senate bill is bad for you as well. The following table looks at the impact of the Senate bill on the average premiums Pennsylvanians at different ages and income levels will pay for silver plans on the marketplace. For all but 35 year olds at 300% of the poverty, premiums will be higher than under the ACA. For Pennsylvanians who have lower incomes or are older, the premium increases are substantial. For forty-five year olds… Continue reading
How Dumb Does Senator Toomey Think We Are?
Marc Stier | 07/02/2017 Blog I’m not just a practitioner of political rhetoric, but also a connoisseur of it. I can appreciate a good argument and a well-turned phrase put forward by our ideological opponents. And, rather than get disturbed by what the other side says, I take their best work as a challenge. But what truly does get me angry is when our opponents not only lie, but do so with arguments that are insulting to the intelligence of the people we are trying to influence – the citizens of Pennsylvania and America. So it’s no wonder that I find what Senator Toomey says about the impact of the Senate health care bill on Medicaid so utterly offensive. When I hear him speak on the plan he played a major role in devising, I can’t help but wonder, ‘how dumb does Toomey think we are?’ I can quickly answer: Not… Continue reading
State As Well As Federal Republicans Go After Medicaid
At both the state and federal level, Republican Party leaders seem to be on the warpath against Medicaid. Thankfully, rank and file Republicans in both legislatures and the public seem to be pushing back against them, as long, bi-partisan support for Medicaid continues. At the federal level, both the Senate and House Republican health care bills call for drastic cuts to not just the Medicaid Expansion but traditional Medicaid. The cuts they propose will lead to tens of thousands of seniors, children, disabled people and working adults losing health care. Thankfully some Republicans are pushing back against the proposal. Four Pennsylvania Republican members of the U.S. House delegation voted against the House bill. And while Senator Toomey is pushing to make the Senate bill worse, so far he hasn’t convinced all his Republicans colleagues to join him. In Pennsylvania, Republican leaders want to seek federal waivers for our Medicaid program… Continue reading
Effects of U.S. Senate Health Care Bill on Pennsylvania
MEMO To: Interested Parties From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Date: June 28, 2017 Re: Effects of U.S. Senate Health Care Bill on Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will be releasing a number of briefs on the effects of the U.S. Senate health care bill in the next few days. You can see our initial statement in response to the CBO scoring of the bill here. Below is our first brief on the effects of the bill on Pennsylvania. Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die – Estimating Number of Premature Deaths Due to the GOP Health Care Plan Legislators, like God, make decisions all the time about who shall live and who shall die. So many public policies, from those that control access to medicinal and recreation drugs, to those that set speed limits and safety standards for the roads, to those that help people… Continue reading
PBPC On the CBO Report for the Senate Health Care Bill
Marc Stier, Director of the PA Budget and Policy Center, made the following statement following today’s release of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the U.S. Senate GOP Health Care Bill (Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017) It’s official — the Senate health care bill is not an improvement but actually worse for Americans than the House bill. The CBO analysis released today holds that 22 million fewer Americans will be insured in 2026 as a result of the Better Care Reconciliation Act. That is slightly better than the House bill. But, as the CBO itself hints, it’s ten-year analysis of the bill does not take into account the drastic change the Senate bill makes to the Medicaid program in 2025. This plan, proposed by Senator Toomey, reduces the index by which per capita caps go up each year from the medical inflation rate (CPI-M, which is projected by… Continue reading
Which Direction for America? What’s at Stake in the Health Care Debate?
Marc Stier | 06/25/2017 Blog One of the fascinating / distressing things about the health care debate on Facebook is that it’s bringing the truth out in a way that the debate in the Senate is not. If you have any doubt that this is a inflection point in our history, in which the forces of tolerance, compassion and justice are arrayed against the forces of bigotry, greed, and injustice, look at what the opponents of the ACA are saying. I’ve seen folks blaming “fat, poor people who eat badly” for their own illnesses because, as they would say, most illness is self-inflicted. of course, there are no rich people who ever get fat or eat badly, yet they get health care. I’ve seen folks say they shouldn’t pay for the health care of those who can’t afford it, even though they don’t do so under the ACA, which… Continue reading
It’s Not Just a Number but Lives–the CBO Score of the AHCA
Originally published at ThirdandState. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the Republican health care plan, the ACHA, released today shows the danger of Congressional action in advance of a serious analysis of the impact of legislation. Though it was touted as a new and improved version of the bill that failed in March, the CBO analysis shows the bill that passed the House is no better, and in some ways, far worse. The CBO estimates that, at the end of ten years, 23 million fewer Americans will have health insurance because of the legislation, which is one million less than the estimate of their earlier bill. Most of the lost health insurance created by the AHCA is the result of the slow repeal of the Medicaid expansion and the replacement of the federal entitlement to traditional Medicaid by a per-capita cap on federal funding of the program. These devastating… Continue reading