Alabama leaders quiet on new Senate health bill

July 13--Alabama's elected officials were largely silent Thursday after Senate Republicans released the newest version of their health care bill.

Critics of the Affordable Care Act repeal-and-replace plan say the new bill does little to address their worries about Alabama's health care system.

Gov. Kay Ivey's communication director, Joshua Pendergrass, said in an email to The Star said governor won't comment on any specific part of the bill as it is going through the legislative process.

"The Governor is, however, monitoring the process closely and, no matter what the final bill looks like, will advocate for what is in the best interests of all Alabamians," Pendergrass wrote.

The governor is in contact with each member of Alabama's congressional delegation "regarding a number of issues that are important to Alabamians," Pendergrass said, when asked if the governor was working behind the scenes with Alabama's senators.

In an appearance on Fox News, Sen. Luther Strange said he is optimistic after the release of the revised bill and the Senate is making progress. Strange also said Alabama was being rewarded for its creativity with the Medicaid population.

Multiple attempts to reach Strange and Sen. Richard Shelby were unsuccessful Thursday.

"It's designed to transfer money from one area to others through these major tax cuts," said Jim Carnes, policy director of the group ARISE. "It's disappointing that we can't have a national health bill that is designed to address health."

Senate Republicans released a revised version of their health care bill to the public Thursday after reviewing it with party members during a lunch meeting Tuesday.

The bill will increase the funding to fight the opioid crisis to $45 billion to held states address their problems locally. Carnes said that while funding the fight is helpful just giving money is not the right approach for opioid addiction.

"We need to be addressing this crisis in a comprehensive way and not in an adjunct as a way to get rid of Obamacare," Carnes said. "It shouldn't be a way to win votes on a bad bill. This is literally throwing dollars into a category to win votes."

The new bill also includes changes the Medicaid funding that appeared in previous versions.

"It's really surprising and puzzling with all the pushback on the Medicaid cuts that they are being kept in place from the beginning," Carnes said. "It raises the question of what is the point of this anyway."

The revised bill also allows insurance companies to sell insurance policies that do not meet Obamacare standards as long as they sell one insurance policy that does meet the standards such as coverage for emergency services. Carnes said this addition will destabilize the insurance market.

"Are we going to concentrate all of the sick people to that plan?" Carnes said. "Separating the sick from the healthy is totally at odds with a stable health insurance market."

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