GOP health care bill under scrutiny by Lankford, Inhofe
Oklahoma’s U.S. senators said they were still reviewing the GOP health care bill unveiled Thursday before deciding how they would vote on the measure.
“Congress should pass a bill that provides a smooth transition from the Affordable Care Act to a better system that provides more affordable coverage options for everyone, with the goal in mind of doing no harm to current enrollees as the transition occurs,” said U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City.
Lankford did not say whether the GOP bill would achieve that goal. He said he would analyze the bill in the coming days “to ensure that it is affordable and practical for Oklahomans of all socioeconomic levels and all health conditions.”
The senator later told CNN, “Put me down as a solid undecided” and said there are six areas of the bill where he has concerns or suggestions for change.
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, sounded similarly undecided.
“The Republican-led Senate is committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare, which will help to stabilize collapsing insurance markets, make health insurance more affordable and free the American people from the burdensome Obamacare mandates,” said Inhofe, before adding that he, too, is still reading the bill.
The support of Lankford and Inhofe, along with nearly every other Republican senator, will be crucial if the bill is to pass. With unanimous Democratic opposition, Republicans need at least 50 of their 52 senators to vote in favor.
The 142-page bill, coined a “discussion draft” by Republican leaders, would send $50 billion to states over the next four years to shore up insurance markets and would end the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid, which Oklahoma chose not to partake in. The bill also would end tax penalties on people who don’t buy insurance — effectively ending the socalled individual mandate — and on larger companies that don’t offer coverage to their workers. It would also end federal funding of Planned Parenthood for a year.
Reaction in Oklahoma was mixed.
State Rep. Lewis Moore, a conservative Republican from Arcadia and chair of the House Insurance Committee, said congressional attempts to end Medicaid expansion are validation of Oklahoma’s rejections of it. He urged Republicans to continue pushing for a free market approach to health care.
“We want it to be constitutional, we want costs to be down, we want doctors to be able to care for their patients,” Mooresaid.
Others criticized plans in the bill to curtail Medicaid spending.
“This is a bad bill,” said Carly Putnam, a policy analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute, which favors Medicaid expansion. “It’s not an Obamacare repeal. It takes a few general swipes at Obamacare and does unimaginable damage to Medicaid.”
Medicaid, she said, is a program that works, despite what critics say. It provides low-income children everything from basic health care to emergency services without bankrupting their families.
“The program does what it’s supposed to and does it well, and the Senate bill would devastate it,” she said.
Caitlin Donovan, a spokeswoman for the National Patient Advocate Foundation, said the Senate bill would harm the roughly 820,000 Oklahoma residents on Medicaid.
“Because of the changes to funding in the bill, each of those people would most likely see their benefits cut, putting them in greater danger of declaring bankruptcy or having a health crisis because they can’t afford their care,” Donovan said.
States would be granted more flexibility under the Republican plan. A waiver process would allow them to end what’s known as essential health benefits — requirements that insurers cover hospitalization, prescription drugs, emergency services and other services deemed essential under the Affordable Care Act.
Putnam said that will leave Oklahomans unable to pay for basic health care needs, Putnam said. The bill gives flexibility to states without granting them adequate funding, placing the burden of Medicaid cuts on state officials, according to Putnam.
“It’s worse coverage at a higher cost,” she said.
The office of Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak declined to comment until a final bill has been passed by Congress. A spokeswoman for Doak said “too many uncertainties” remain.