Casey goes to bat for Medicaid
Pa.’s Democratic senator invites area Marine vet and aid recipient to Trump’s Congressional address
NORRISTOWN >> When President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress on Feb. 28, many Pennsylvanians, and perhaps especially those who benefit from Medicaid, will be listening closely.
In part, that is because the 50-year-old federal program that provides health insurance to low-income and disabled Americans could be in for a major overhaul proposed by Congressional Republicans last year, which now has a chance of becoming law due to GOP majorities in the House and Senate, and the Trump administration’s pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare.
The Republican proposal, outlined by Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan’s 2016 “A Better Way” plan, could move federal funding of Medicaid to block grants that would establish fixed dollar amounts, or a per capita cap, on monies the federal government is currently mandated to reimburse each state for individual beneficiaries.
The GOP plan would also eliminate the ACA’s Medicaid expansion component, which allows states to include additional enrollees, surpassing the program’s minimum requirements.
Standing in vehement opposition to the Republican plan is Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey from Pennsylvania.
“In essence,” Casey said, “Medicaid has two speeding trains headed for it: full ACA repeal and block granting of Medicaid. This is a bad idea and it has no redeeming quality and it should be thrown in the trash heap where it belongs.”
Casey will be accompanied at the Capitol Tuesday by Marine Corps veteran Joe McGrath of Lafayette Hill, who is living with Parkinson’s disease and has a teenage daughter with Down syndrome.
“Obviously, when someone serves their country as he has, it’s a great privilege to bring them to Washington even if they don’t have a personal connection to this issue. But it’s really emblematic of how widespread the misery would be if they (Congressional Republicans) get their way on Medicaid,” said Casey about his invitation to McGrath.
“Having Joe McGrath as part of that team to help us stop the block granting of Medicaid will be of great benefit to our cause,” Casey said. “If block granting were to go through and become law now that there’s a Republican president, who during the campaign said he wouldn’t touch Medicaid along with Medicare and Social Security ... it would have an adverse affect on families with a loved one with a disability. It would affect families trying to get a loved one into a nursing home … And it would obviously affect children in rural areas and urban areas that come from low income families.”
Nearly 2.8 million Pennsylvanians received Medicaid or other public health care benefits excluding Medicare, which benefits seniors, in 2014, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization specializing in health care analysis.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the Republican proposal currently under consideration would decrease federal health care spending from its present level of approximately 12 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 6 percent of GDP by 2030, resulting in significant deficit reductions for decades to follow.
The CBO also concluded that the block granting of Medicaid and halting of the program’s expansion under the ACA, while adding flexibility to state’s health care insurance options, would inevitably require states to “decrease payments to Medicaid providers, reduce eligibility for Medicaid and provide less extensive coverage to beneficiaries.”
“It’s a totally ideologically extreme position to take, and Republicans look as if they’re voting for it in Congress year after year, knowing full well it would never become law, but they could go home and look like great budget cutters,” Casey said. “But now, apparently the Trump administration is talking about embracing the Medicaid proposals that were put forth by Speaker Ryan and (former) Rep. (Tom) Price ( R-Ga.), who is now secretary of health and human services.
“They think the federal government’s too big. They want to cut it dramatically. That’s kind of the opening argument of their position.
“So that’s where we find ourselves, facing a circumstance where if Medicaid were block granted you’re basically talking about a trillion dollars in cuts. And those resources that are taken away mean that less people can receive care, or the care that people do receive is reduced in some way,” Casey argued, citing assertions by Gene Sperling, who headed the National Economic Council under Presidents Clinton and Obama, and the findings of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank that estimated that if the Ryan plan were implemented, there would be a 33 percent decrease in federal funding for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), amounting to an estimated $169 billion cut under current levels over 10 years.