Social services advocates voice concerns over Senate health bill
As Senate Republicans unwrapped their latest proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare in the nation’s capital on Thursday afternoon, a group of 75 people — most of them from social service agencies that help those most likely to be affected by the legislation — were meeting in Downtown Pittsburgh to consider the bill’s implications.
Details and analyses were still coming out of Washington during the 2½ hour session at the Allegheny County Human Services Building on Smithfield Street, but attendees knew enough to express their concerns and frustration.
“Now that people understand what they’re losing, Obamacare has never been more popular,” said the Rev. Sally Jo Snyder with the Consumer Health Coalition, who hopes to harness that reaction into what she’s billing as plans for “A March on Washington for Healthcare.”
The Senate bill modifies an earlier attempt that had enough opposition from both conservatives and Republican moderates to fall short of the majority needed to pass. No Democrats voted in favor.
It allows for lower-cost plans that would offer fewer benefits than required under Obamacare. It also retains taxes on wealthier individuals, which should blunt criticism that eliminating those taxes unfairly benefitted wealthier individuals, while providing an additional $70 billion to states to lower premiums and $45 billion for opioid treatment programs.
But one key feature of the earlier House bill, and a major sticking point for opponents, remains: Federal funding for Medicaid patients will be converted to block grants — giving states a set amount of money for their medical assistance
programs rather than covering the costs for all eligible care.
“This isn’t about destroying Obamacare,” said moderator William McKendree of the replace-and-repeal push.
“This is a device to destroy Medicaid.”
Mr. McKendree is coordinator for Apprise, a program operated by the Family Services of Western Pennsylvania in partnership with the Allegheny County Area Agency on Aging that helps seniors select Medicare plans. He said 75 million Americans receive Medicaid benefits, many who are elderly — including 65 percent of nursing home residents — or who have a physical or mental disability.
If Medicaid funding can no longer cover all of them, he asked, “What happens to people who can’t pay?” He thinks he knows. “They are going to seek the place that can’t turn you away, the hospital emergency room.”
With Congress likely to shift responsibility for managing Medicaid spending to states, he worries that “these guys [state legislators] haven’t even started to think about this.”
Staff members for about a half-dozen state legislators attended Thursday’s event. Mr. McKendree had a message for them to take back to Harrisburg:
“Please tell your bosses this is going to be a big deal.”