Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senate Plan Could Saddle States With $565M In Medicaid Spending And Credit Problems
The now-delayed U.S. Senate healthcare overhaul bill would boost state spending on Medicaid by $565 million in 2022, according to an independent report issued on Wednesday, while credit agencies said it would cause states to face downward pressure on their credit ratings. Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday postponed the vote on the bill, which they hoped would take place before their July 4 recess. (Kelly, 6/28)
Senate Republicans鈥 health care fight is getting personal. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rob Portman, close allies and typically mild-mannered men, got into a heated exchange over Medicaid at a meeting earlier this week. (Bresnahan and Kim, 6/29)
Dewey Gorman, a 59-year-old banker who has struggled with opioid addiction, had just gotten out of the hospital in this tiny central Appalachian city when he heard the word from Washington: His fellow Kentuckian, Senator Mitch McConnell, had delayed a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He felt torn about that. 鈥淚t鈥檚 broken. It鈥檚 broken very badly,鈥 Mr. Gorman said of former President Barack Obama鈥檚 signature health care law. 鈥淏ut if they want to take away insurance from 22 million people 鈥 a lot of them would come from these mountains. That would be devastating to our area.鈥 (Stolberg, 6/28)
President Trump on Wednesday said that the Republican plan to change Medicaid would lead to an increase in spending, not a cut, accusing Democrats of having 鈥減urposely misstated鈥 the facts. In a literal sense, he's right. The total amount of money spent on Medicaid under the Senate Republican plan would grow, albeit slowly, from 2017 to 2026. But the accounting he uses to show Medicaid spending is wildly divergent from the way budget analysts, policymakers and many lawmakers account for spending levels. (Paletta and Johnson, 6/28)
President Trump accused Democrats of lying about the projected Medicaid cuts in the Republican health care plan, but they didn't. They're just counting different things. (Jackson and Groppe, 6/28)
The Senate healthcare bill released last week would leave California short $115 billion for its Medi-Cal program between 2020 and 2027, according to a state analysis released Wednesday. The Medi-Cal program, which is jointly funded by the state and federal government, grew dramatically under the Affordable Care Act to cover 13.5 million Californians, or 1 out of 3 state residents. (Karlamangla, 6/28)
California risks losing $114.6 billion in federal funds within a decade for its Medicaid program under the Senate health care bill, a decline that would require the state to completely dismantle and rebuild the public insurance program that now serves one-third of the state, health leaders said Wednesday. The reductions in the nation鈥檚 largest Medicaid program would start at $3 billion in 2020 and would escalate to $30.3 billion annually by 2027, according to an analysis released by the state departments of finance and health care services. (Gorman, 6/28)
Air Force veteran Billy Ramos, from Simi Valley, Calif., is 53 and gets health insurance for himself and for his family from Medicaid 鈥 the government insurance program for lower-income people. He says he counts on the coverage, especially because of his physically demanding work as a self-employed contractor in the heating and air conditioning business. (O'Neill, 6/28)
The one near-certainty in GOP efforts to patch up their failed Obamacare repeal bill over the July Fourth break is that they will add more money to combat the opioid crisis. That may entice some moderate lawmakers to support the bill. But it will do little to fulfill Donald Trump鈥檚 campaign promise to address the crisis devastating so many communities. And it certainly won鈥檛 make up for the Medicaid cuts that many members of his own opioid commission oppose because tens of thousands of people who are addicted to the drugs would lose regular health coverage. (Karlin-Smith, 6/29)
[Chelsea] Carter estimates about 90 percent of the people that come into her clinic for treatment for substance use disorders are on Medicaid, the federal program for the poor that West Virginia chose to expand under the Affordable Care Act.The Senate health care bill would phase out that expansion and, over time, make cuts to traditional Medicaid as well (as compared to the anticipated spending under current law). (Keith, 6/29)
