Advocates examine impact of AHCA
CHOP hosts heath care providers, parents to discuss ‘looming crisis’ in Medicaid
Donna Cooper grew concerned when she opened the Sunday newspaper and read a commentary by U.S. Senator Pat Toomey.
“The second sentence of the piece said that the Obamacare program isn’t working because people can’t choose their doctor,” noted the executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), which co-hosted a press conference at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in King of Prussia on Monday to discuss the “looming crisis” surrounding the American Health Care Act.
The bill received enough votes in the House of Representatives recently without a single favorable vote coming from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Congressional delegation, a PCCY press release noted.
“We’re here today specifically to thank the Southeastern Pennsylvania Congressional dele-
gation for voting no when the house passed the Health Care Act,” Cooper told the small crowd gathered outdoors behind the hospital on North Gulph Road.
Among those in attendance were school district officials, health care providers, CHOP staff and parents.
“They voted for all the children who receive health care through Medicaid. We are here to remind them that when they vote for those million children again if this bill goes back to the house we will stand with them,” Cooper said, adding that proposed Medicaid cuts would be devastating to all children in Pennsylvania.
“A 25 percent cut in Medicaid will pull the rug out from underneath them. Choice will be gone. Health care will be gone. This bill provides a billion dollars in tax cuts. Warren Buffet said if this bill passes he will see his taxes go down $680,000,” she noted. “These mothers you hear from today will suffer so that tax cuts can be given to people who aren’t even asking for them. We have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks to increase the knowledge in our community that children are at risk by the Senate Health Care bill. This is not about repealing Obamacare. This is about changing Medicaid as we know it.”
One of the parents who spoke, Dianne Hull of Swarthmore, is the mother of a young boy diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes who relies heavily on Medicaid for medicines like insulin and other medical services.
“It’s a chronic and lifelong autoimmune disease with no known cure,” Hull said. “In an instant his life became dependent on constant blood sugar tests and insulin injections. Each and every day he receives four to six doses of insulin and checks blood sugar up to 10 times. While we were devastated by Brett’s diagnosis, we were determined to move forward.”
Help from Medicaid has eased much of the financial burden of her son’s disease, Hull noted.
“There are doctor’s visits, hospitalizations and medical tests. It requires constant vigilance and never takes a day off,” she said.
Over the last decade the price of insulin alone has skyrocketed 290 percent, Hull pointed out.
“Medicaid allows children to receive the care that they need and saves many parents from having to make agonizing choices over whether to buy groceries or medication that their children need. Of the 2.8 million people in Pennsylvania who receive Medicaid, 40 per cent are children. These children are your friends, your neighbors and your children’s classmates,” Hull said. “Medicaid helps children from all walks of life with a wide range of medical challenges and disorders, from
brain tumors to pediatric cancer and cystic fibrosis. I send my heartfelt gratitude to our Philadelphia area Congressional representatives who voted against the House Health Care bill last month.”
Tina Viletto of the Montgomery County Intermediary Unit, said that heath care services are provided to children across Pennsylvania due to the Medicaid reimbursements her organization and school districts receive.
“Many children with special needs are identified early and then they receive services for early intervention and make their way through school, and hopefully some never need services beyond that. Medicaid plays an important part in the financial piece for the schools,” Viletto said.
“We receive reimbursement through Pennsylvania’s public school-based Medical Access program. Many of you may think it’s just about children with special needs but I am here to remind everyone that our state is currently in a budget deficit. We’re told repeatedly that there is no
money for education funding. But, at the same time our federal government is (putting the onus on the state) to pick and choose who receives Medicaid services. What do our school districts do? What do our intermediate units do when we don’t have those funds available? We have got to talk about $143 million, which was the total in Pennsylvania two years ago for state Medical Access reimbursement. We’re up to $253 million now. We know that the state will not be able to meet those dollars.”
This will impact every child, Viletto said.
“Because if the funds are not available to provide what is required by law, the problem is that if the money is not there, school budgets will be seriously damaged and the only option will be to cut other options because we cannot turn away from federal obligation.”
The issue goes well beyond special needs children, Viletto noted.
“We’re here to remind everyone that this fight isn’t just about special needs children. This fight is about all children.”