Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
It's Not Just Blue States That Will Be Hurt Under GOP Plan -- Trump Country Would Take Hit Too
Memo to Republican senators: Many of the states President Donald Trump won last year would lose significant federal financing under the last-ditch Republican health care bill headed for a possible showdown in the Senate this week. Among states expected to lose are Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, and Ohio, where cuts could swell the number of uninsured people. That has political implications for Republicans girding for congressional midterm elections next year, as well as for the next presidential race in 2020. That year is when the biggest spending reductions from the legislation by GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy would start taking effect. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/25)
California, which has used the Affordable Care Act to extend health protections to millions of its residents and cut in half the number of people without health insurance, stands to lose more than any other state under the latest Republican plan to roll back the 2010 law. The GOP plan, which Senate leaders want to bring to a vote this week, would slash more than $100 billion in federal funding for the state over the next decade and tens of billions more in the years that follow. (Levey, 9/24)
The GOP鈥檚 latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act wobbled on Friday as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he could not support it. But the bill known as Graham-Cassidy isn鈥檛 dead yet. And whatever its fate, the long-held Republican goal it embodies 鈥 to fundamentally change how the government funds Medicaid 鈥 will survive. Graham-Cassidy would dramatically redistribute federal funds to states. And, generally, states that expanded Medicaid 鈥 like California 鈥 stand to lose billions of dollars as that money is doled out to states that didn鈥檛 鈥 like Texas. (Dembosky and Lopez, 9/22)
At least 21 million fewer Americans would have health-care coverage from 2020 to 2026 under the Senate Republicans鈥 latest plan to repeal and replace parts of Obamacare, according to an estimate by the聽Brookings Institution. The number 鈥渓ikely underestimates the reductions in insurance coverage鈥 because it doesn鈥檛 take into account difficulties states may face setting up their own health systems, said the nonprofit policy group, which has been supportive of the Affordable Care Act. (Edney, 9/22)
The billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid proposed in Senate Republicans鈥 latest and perhaps final attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act would be devastating to children across Washington, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said Friday. Named after its lead sponsors, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the repeal bill would end the ACA鈥檚 Medi颅caid expansion, which has provided insurance to about 600,000 people in Washington. It would also end the federal subsidies that help people buy private insurance. (Gutman, 9/22)
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers predicted a sharp financial toll on the state鈥檚 Medicaid program if the federal Graham-Cassidy health care bill passes, and warned of funding shortages that could result from the bill鈥檚 block grant system. Speaking at a Monitor editorial board meeting Wednesday, Meyers said that the proposed legislation could cause a loss of about $820 million in Medicaid funding between 2020 and 2026, citing calculations made by his office. (DeWitt, 9/23)
Federal healthcare funding to Connecticut would be reduced by about $7 billion, and 鈥渄ramatic numbers鈥 of individuals would lose coverage or have it reduced between 2020 and 2026 under the latest Republican proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the state鈥檚 budget office said Friday. (Rigg, 9/22)
The bill would also end the Medicaid expansion that 31 states, including Michigan, and Washington, D.C., took advantage of under Obamacare and overhaul the funding for traditional Medicaid.聽In Michigan, more than 670,000 people signed up for the Medicaid expansion program. 鈥淭he current bill will be devastating for patients and Michiganders who are finally getting health care they need and deserve,鈥 said Wright Lassiter, president and CEO of the Henry Ford Health System. (Gray, 9/22)
The state legislative report issued this week predicts Arizona's Medicaid program would lose $10.4 billion from 2020 through 2026 under the health-care bill introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., when compared with funding authorized under the current health-care law, the Affordable Care Act. (Alltucker, 9/22)