BAY AREA FRETS AS SENATE STEWS
ACA supporters fear losing care; critics pine for premium relief
Jason Becker’s diagnosis with Lou Gehrig’s disease almost 30 years ago has left him virtually unable to speak.
But the Richmond resident can still communicate his feelings about a U.S. Senate vote — now scheduled for after the Fourth of July holiday — that would dismantle the Affordable Care Act and severely slash the Medi-Cal program he and more than a third of Californians rely on for medical care.
“I have survived ALS to continue my work as a musician and composer for 28 years due to the care I receive through” Medi-Cal, the 47-year-old Becker wrote Monday in a Facebook post. “Without these supports, my family can flat out not manage my care and my life and career will be
in serious jeopardy.”
But in San Jose, Frank Lux, who owns a small machine shop that provides health insurance to 15 employees, can’t wait until “Obamacare” is repealed and replaced. It’s one of the reasons the Democrat voted for Donald Trump.
“You know why? Because my ‘choice’ of where to get insurance stinks,” Lux said. Since the law kicked into gear in 2014, he said, “it’s been nonstop increases in insurance costs. Some choice THAT is.”
The opinions of Becker and Lux show how emotions are running high about Obamacare, even in a state that mostly embraced it. The disparate views also provide insight into the challenge the Republican Congress faces as it tries to come up with a substitute law.
California’s successful state-run health care exchange boasts 1.4 million enrolled in private health care plans and about four million low-income residents in an expanded Medi Cal program, but controversy remains. While many Californians see Obamacare as a lifeline to medical care that is suddenly within their financial reach, some Californians miss the days when the government didn’t penalize them for not having health insurance. Or they long for the time when they could buy bare-bones plans that didn’t require a comprehensive package that includes expensive mandates like mental health and maternity coverage.
The hard truth of Obamacare is this: While the law has sliced the number of California’s uninsured by more than half, it has not necessarily made health care more affordable for everyone.
The full impact of the Senate health care plan — called the Better Care Reconciliation Act — came into focus Monday after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would leave 22 million more people without health care coverage by 2026, cut $770 billion from Medicaid over 10 years and reduce the federal deficit by $321 billion.
That has left millions of Californians who have benefited from Obamacare extremely nervous about what will happen when the Senate returns after the July break.
“It’s just insane,” said Rebekah Younger, a 61-yearold self-employed artist and interior decorator. “We are the only country that punishes people for being ill.”
While the delay of the Senate vote was welcomed by supporters because it gives them hope Republicans won’t be able to corral enough votes, Younger — a Medi-Cal recipient who has battled cancer, heart disease and now Parkinson’s — said for her it just means more anxiety-filled days.
The Oakland resident noted that the House had once postponed its vote, too, then later passed a health care bill that also severely cut Medi-Cal.
Though Younger’s health care is free, health care policy experts say both the GOP bills will end up punishing older, poorer Americans in the exchange market with much more expensive premiums, higher deductibles and plans that offer less coverage.
The GOP’s ramped-up goal to replace Obamacare arrives just as recent surveys reveal increasing support for the law in California — and across the country.
A poll released last week by the Menlo Park-based Kaiser Family Foundation shows that for the first time since it began tracking public opinion on the law in 2010, more than half of Americans — 51 percent — now view the Affordable Care Act favorably. A California poll published this month by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies that shows a record number of Golden State residents — 65 percent — now support the law.
Both the Kaiser and IGS polls show support for Medi-Cal is strong among all political persuasions.
Even Lux, the Trump supporter who hates Obamacare, argues that Medicaid funding should not be touched.
“I don’t want more homeless people — keep the Medi Cal!” said Lux, 52, adding that it’s the private insurance market he wants fixed.
“I’m paying $20,000 a year,” he said of the health care plan that covers himself, his wife and three teenage children — not including money for co-pays and deductibles. “Painful,” he declared. “And you can thank Obamacare for that mess!”
It’s one reason why Lux enthusiastically supports a revived effort in California to establish a single-payer plan similar to Medicare. He was dismayed when it was put on hold indefinitely last week by state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon until details about how to pay for universal health care are worked out.
In Santa Cruz County, Chris Olsen is similarly frustrated by his family’s soaring insurance premiums under Obamacare, much of that due to the lack of competition among hospitals and health plans on the Central Coast.
“I’m not opposed to everyone having health care, and I think people should not be denied for pre-existing conditions,” said the 47-year-old environmental consultant, who lives in Watsonville.
“My real opposition is that I’m mandated to purchase the insurance from ‘approved’ plans and companies through Covered California,” the state’s insurance exchange, he said.
Before Obamacare, Olsen said, his family’s health insurance costs were $650$700 per month. Now they are $1,147 per month. A Kaiser plan would be $200 less, but he and his wife don’t want to move their family to a new health care system.
“Health insurance has become my second biggest bill after my mortgage, and we rarely go to the doctor,” said a frustrated Olsen. “I look forward to the individual mandate going away and being able to shop for health insurance on the open market to reduce my costs.”
But Lafayette resident Amy Cupples is praying that doesn’t happen. The working single mother who pays $505 every month for herself and her two children — after a $300 subsidy from the federal government — is “terrified” about what might happen if the law is repealed.
“It’s all very upsetting,” said Cupples, 43, a self-employed landscape architect. “I cannot imagine raising kids and not being able to call up my doctor, especially during the flu season.”
Without the same subsidy, Cupples said, she would not be able to afford her plan. It’s one more reason why she, too, supports the movement for a universal health care plan in California.
“It’s the most obvious way to go, for whatever level of income you have,” she said. “It just makes sense. You should not expect people to choose health care they cannot afford.”