ALSO INSIDE
Cleveland Clinic CEO opposes health care bill,
Cleveland WASHINGTON, D.C. — Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove doesn’t think of himself as a political guy. But he’s so strongly opposed to the U.S. Senate’s latest Affordable Care Act repeal proposal that he’s contacted his legislators and the media and distributed an op-ed to get out his message.
In an interview last week, Cosgrove said he was delighted to learn that Sen. John McCain of Arizona had announced his opposition to the proposal advanced by Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, potentially stopping it from going forward.
“As a physician, this is one thing I am in favor of killing,” said Cosgrove. “The general public has no idea what this is all about. To me it is bad form and also bad content.”
Cosgrove said he dislikes that the bill is being rushed to a vote without full public hearings or analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.
He’s also upset that it will take away $140 billion in Medicaid funds, including $4 billion to $9 billion for Ohio. He says its plan to provide block grants to states will mean there’s no guarantee insurers will have to provide essential services to their customers.
The decreased Medicaid funding in Graham-Cassidy will threaten the financial viability of hospitals nationwide.
When Cosgrove expressed his views to Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman, Cosgrove reports that Portman said the CEO was “intimidating.” Portman hasn’t indicated how he intends to vote, saying he likes that block grants would give Ohio the freedom to design its own program, but he’s still assessing the plan’s impact on the state.
“It was a respectful discussion and he may well have been kidding,” said Cosgrove. “I have tremendous respect for the guy. I told him exactly what I thought. I think he is probably making up his mind what direction he will go.”
Cosgrove said he’s not focused on whether the Affordable Care Act should be repealed and replaced — he’s focused on what could be done to reduce medical costs.
Without action, he says medical costs will continue to rise because “we have more older people and we have increasing numbers of things we can do for them” when they become sick.
Greater efficiencies could help bring down costs, he says.
Rising pharmaceutical costs, excessive regulations, government interference with consolidations, and electronic medical record systems that don’t communicate with each other are all issues that could be addressed to reduce costs.
He added that the government could address the epidemic of smoking by “taxing cigarettes out of existence,” the epidemic of obesity by stopping sugar industry subsidies, and the opioid epidemic through education, treatment and law enforcement.
Cosgrove says he’s communicated with Ohio members of Congress about the bill, written to the nation’s governors and “talked endlessly about the costs.”
“Right now, you’ve got the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and AARP all opposing this bill,” Cosgrove said.
“We have to try and figure out how to stop it. It is terrible. I generally do not get politically involved, but this is one thing that I think is important.”