The Trumpcare bill that Republican Senators developed behind closed doors is being met with forceful opposition from healthcare experts and associations across the country who are warning that it would have devastating effects on patients and their families.
These experts confirm that the Senate package duplicates the House Trumpcare bill, and that its even deeper cuts to Medicaid would be extremely painful for the tens of millions of working people, seniors, and children who depend on it.
At the same time, the Wall Street Journal writes that the Senate’s “Health Bill Gives Huge Tax Cuts to Businesses, High-Income Households.”
“Senate Republicans wrote their Trumpcare plan behind closed doors because they know how painful its effects would be for the American people,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “We don’t know which lobbyists these Republicans let into the room as they developed this appalling bill that would take health insurance from millions, gut coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and end Medicaid as we know it – all to cut taxes for the rich. But now we definitely know who they didn’t consult: the nation’s healthcare experts.”
American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack: “Unfortunately, the draft bill under discussion in the Senate moves in the opposite direction, particularly for our most vulnerable patients. The Senate proposal would likely trigger deep cuts to the Medicaid program that covers millions of Americans with chronic conditions such as cancer, along with the elderly and individuals with disabilities who need long-term services and support. Medicaid cuts of this magnitude are unsustainable and will increase costs to individuals with private insurance. We urge the Senate to go back to the drawing board and develop legislation that continues to provide coverage to all Americans who currently have it.” [American Hospital Association, 6/22/2017]
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American Hospital Association Chief Executive Rick Pollack: “Medicaid cuts of this magnitude are unsustainable and will increase costs to individuals with private insurance.” [Washington Post, 6/22/17]
American Lung Association National President and CEO Harold P. Wimmer: “The healthcare legislation released today falls woefully short of providing healthcare for the 32 million Americans living with lung disease and should be rejected. The Senate bill will slash funding for our nation’s Medicaid program, which provides coverage for 20 percent of Americans and 39 percent of children — many of whom have asthma, COPD and other lung diseases. The proposed cuts to Medicaid under this bill will be devastating for children, seniors and people living with disabilities for whom healthcare is critical. Cuts to Medicaid will lead to more asthma attacks.” [American Lung Association, 6/22/2017]
Association of American Medical Colleges President And CEO Darrell G. Kirch: “As the nation’s medical schools and teaching hospitals see every day, people without sufficient coverage often delay getting the care they need. This can turn a manageable condition into a life-threatening and expensive emergency.” [Washington Post, 6/22/17]
American Academy of Pediatrics President Fernando Stein, MD, FAAP: “The bill fails children by dismantling the Medicaid program, capping its funding, ending its expansion and allowing its benefits to be scaled back. The bill fails all children by leaving more families uninsured, or without insurance they can afford or that meets their basic needs. This bill fails children living in or near poverty, children in foster care and children with complex health care needs whose parents have private insurance – all of these children depend on Medicaid, and if this bill passes, Medicaid will no longer be there for them.” [American Academy of Pediatrics, 6/22/2017]
American Psychiatric Association President-Elect Altha Stewart, M.D.: “Eliminating requirements for coverage of key benefits, including mental health and substance use disorders and other patient protections that are part of the Affordable Care Act, will have detrimental impacts for millions…Mental health is critical to overall health and needs to be equally accessible.” [American Psychiatric Association, 6/22/2017]
American Psychiatric Association CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A.: “The Senate proposal represents a significant move in the wrong direction, resulting in fewer people having access to insurance, fewer patient protections, and less coverage for essential behavioral health care…We urge the Senate to reject this harmful legislation and start again on a health care bill that puts patients first.” [American Psychiatric Association, 6/22/2017]
President of America’s Essential Hospitals Dr. Bruce Siegel: “For the hospitals that protect millions of Americans and their communities — our essential hospitals — this bill might even accelerate decisions by some to reduce services or close their doors.” [Los Angeles Times, 6/22/2017]
Kaiser Family Foundation Senior Vice President Larry Levitt: “In broad strokes, the Senate bill is just like the House: Big tax cuts, big cut in federal heath spending, big increase in the uninsured…Under the Senate bill, low-income people would pay higher premiums for bigger deductibles.”[CNBC,6/22/17]
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Kaiser Family Foundation Senior Vice President Larry Levitt: “A 60 year-old at 351% of poverty currently gets a premium subsidy of $5,151 per year on average.’ The Senate bill would eliminate all of that federal financial aid if it becomes law.” [CNBC, 6/22/17]
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Kaiser Family Foundation Senior Vice President Larry Levitt: “Under the senate bill, low-income people would pay higher premiums for bigger deductibles.” [Larry Levitt via Twitter, 6/22/17]
Shatterproof CEO Gary Mendell: “The proposed $45 billion was not going to come close to being sufficient to address the epidemic that’s ravaging our country and taking more lives every day…Shatterproof will continue to pressure senators to vote no on this bill that would have devastating effects for Americans with substance use disorders.” [STAT, 6/22/2017]
Mizuho Healthcare Analyst Sheryl Skolnick: “Thoughtful investors will realize, based on our volume analysis, that the expansion of Medicaid coverage was one of the few sources of volume growth since 2013 for the industry. So while the extra year of life for Medicaid helps the hospitals (and managed-care organizations with Medicaid contracts) in the near-term, the bigger cuts over time hurt more.” [Modern Healthcare, 6/22/17]
Center For American Progress Vice President for Health Policy Topher Spiro: “Senate Trumpcare: you pay higher premiums to get higher deductibles and out-of pocket costs. What’s not to like?” [Toper Spiro via Twitter, 6/22/17]
Center for American Progress: “Assuming that 23 million fewer people would have coverage, we estimate that the coverage losses from the Senate bill would result in 27,700 additional deaths in 2026. If coverage losses from the Senate bill matched those from the House bill, it would result in 217,000 additional deaths over the next decade.” [Center for American Progress, 6/22/2017]
Kellogg School Of Management Professor Craig Garthwaite: “The combination of the higher income threshold and the lower av benchmark will result in a very large increase in out of pocket costs.” [Craig Garthwaite via Twitter, 6/22/17]
Former CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt: “NEW: If you believe in prevention, the senate apparently doesn’t. Bill would kill 12 percent of the CDC’s budget focused on Zika 2018.” [Andy Slavitt via Twitter, 6/22/17]
Director of UCLA’s Center of Health Policy Research Nadereh Pourat: “It’s about undoing Obamacare or ACA in one way or another. The first draft that came out of the House did that exactly. The Senate version from what you see appear in the media is not going to be very different in its purpose.” [Healthline,6/22/17]
Economic Analyst Rick Newman: “I think for matters of the public discussion, this is more or less the same as the House Bill. So right now everyone is trying to figure out how does it differ, does it thread the needle in the Senate. But in general it does same thing the House bill will do, and ordinary people won’t make a distinction between does these Medicaid rollback occur in four years, six years, or eight years. The Headline is just going to be the Trumpcare rolls back Medicaid. I think this is an extraordinarily hard sell.” [CNN, 6/22/2017]
Published: Jun 22, 2017