Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Medicaid Debate: Does The Senate GOP Plan Mean Reform Or Is It Just Plain Mean
USA Today: GOP Medicaid Cuts Would Hurt Much More Than Health Care
The Senate’s new health bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, proposes even deeper cuts to Medicaid than the House bill. ... As physicians, we are dismayed by the prospect of millions of patients losing access to the medical care they need. But what is often lost in the debate about who should have health care and who should pay for it is the larger fact that Medicaid helps people live healthier, fuller and more productive lives. The unavoidable reality for those trying to dismantle the program is that the health of people is intimately linked to the health of communities, local economies and the nation as a whole. (Dhruv Khullar and Anupam Jena, 6/26)
The Wall Street Journal: Health-Reform Principles That Can Cross Party Lines
The current congressional debate about health reform focuses on two closely linked issues: how to structure subsidies and the future of Medicaid. We write to support two propositions that can better serve economically vulnerable families, while also ensuring that public dollars are spent effectively. First, we believe public subsidies for private insurance premiums should be means-adjusted to make coverage affordable for lower-income people. Second, we believe states should be given new flexibility to streamline coverage options in Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and other publicly supported insurance, so that families can obtain the coverage that best suits their circumstances and serves their needs. (Lanhee J. Chen and Ron Pollack, 6/25)
The Washington Post: Republicans Have Long Dreamed Of Cutting Medicaid. Trumpcare Might Really Do It.
As disabled protesters were being dragged, bleeding, from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Thursday after he released his version of Trumpcare, I sat at home working line by line through the 142-page bill. As many have observed, it contains deep cuts to Medicaid, redistributes wealth from the poorest to the richest, and guts all the hard-won protections on preexisting conditions, reproductive care and lifetime spending limits that the Affordable Care Act had brought. What struck me, though, is how familiar all the material on Medicaid looks. Republicans have been trying to gut funding for Medicaid for more than 35 years. The only difference is that this time, they might get away with it. (David Perry, 6/26)
Huffington Post: Kellyanne Conway Defends Medicaid Cuts, Says Adults Can Always Find Jobs
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday came right out and said what so many Republicans are probably thinking ― that taking Medicaid away from able-bodied adults is no big deal, because they can go out and find jobs that provide health insurance. Apparently nobody has told Conway that the majority of able-bodied adults on Medicaid already have jobs. The problem is that they work as parking lot attendants and child care workers, manicurists and dishwashers ― in other words, low-paying jobs that typically don’t offer insurance. Take away their Medicaid and they won’t be covered. (Jonathan Cohn, 6/25)
Los Angeles Times: The Senate GOP Hid The Meanest Things Very Deeply In Its Obamacare Repeal Bill. We Found Them
The Affordable Care Act repeal bill unveiled Thursday by Senate Republicans has aptly drawn universal scorn from healthcare experts, hospital and physician groups and advocates for patients and the needy. That’s because the bill is a poorly-disguised massive tax cut for the wealthy, paid for by cutting Medicaid — which serves the middle class and the poor — to the bone. (Michael Hiltzik, 6/23)
Louisville Courier-Journal: McConnell Will Cause Many To Suffer
Led by Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, Congress is poised to undermine the 52-year-old program that covers more Kentuckians and Americans than any other form of health insurance: Medicaid. The word rarely passes McConnell’s lips in public, because his criticism of “Obamacare” focuses on its worsening markets for private health insurance, which he and President Trump have helped sabotage. But in his floor speech on his health bill Thursday, the Senate majority leader said Republicans “agree on the need to strengthen Medicaid.” (Al Cross, 6/23)
