Casey, Wolf, Shapiro warn Pennsylvanians about Republican health-care plan

July 25--Ahead of Tuesday's U.S. Senate Republican-driven effort to replace the Affordable Care Act, three Pennsylvania leaders joined to once again denounce the Senate GOP health-care plan and warn about its negative impact on the state.

"It's a bad piece of legislation for virtually everyone we can think of," U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, said of the Senate Republican plan, which U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh County, helped craft as part of a 13-member Senate GOP panel.

As he has done since it was unveiled, Casey argued that the plan would hurt the middle-class, senior citizens, children and the disabled mostly through deep cuts to Medicaid funding that would have a widespread impact on health-care across the state.

"We have to do everything we can to defeat this bill," Casey said, again cautioning that more than 700,000 Pennsylvanians could lose coverage by 2026, including 400,000 under Medicaid, and 62,000 health-care related jobs could be lost.

"This bill is a wrecking ball for our health-care system," said Casey.

Casey and Gov. Tom Wolf, who was also on the conference call with reporters along with state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, have said rural hospitals are specifically threatened by the cuts to Medicaid because they rely on reimbursements to operate.

"This bill is really bad for Pennsylvania and for so many other states," Wolf said.

Whether it is the Senate bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, or the U.S. House Republican bill, the American Health Care Act, Wolf said the result will be less coverage, no protection for pre-existing conditions, fewer children and seniors receiving Medicaid assistance and states forced to make grim choices to account for the decrease in federal funding.

Wolf said 125,000 Pennsylvanians receiving substance use disorder treatment under Medicaid expansion would be at risk of losing their coverage if the Senate plan is ultimately passed.

"It's hard to find anything in these plans that solve the problems that Republicans have been complaining about for years," said Wolf, listing rising health-care costs and increasing premiums among those issues.

Wolf and Casey said President Donald Trump and Republicans have worked to confuse Americans and sabotage the existing system under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, by claiming it is failing, telling people not to enroll and spreading uncertainty among insurers by threatening subsidies.

"They've made the system worse by promoting uncertainty to uproot the system," Wolf said.

Wolf also reiterated his commitment to working on a bipartisan solution to health-care issues with other governors, which followed his joining a letter with 10 other Democratic and Republican governors that called on Congress to scrap a repeal of Obamacare and work to control costs and stabilize the market.

"Governors are ready to come to the table and give our input," Wolf said.

Casey decried the impact the GOP plans would have on efforts to fight the opioid and heroin crisis gripping Pennsylvania. Besides the effect on those seeking treatment that Wolf mentioned, Casey said a purported $45 billion fund to augment opioid treatment over the next decade is not enough.

"People don't need a fund. They need coverage," Casey said. "They don't need some fund in Washington to buy off votes, and that's what it's for."

That comment was seemingly directed at senators from West Virginia and Alaska and other states with serious opioid problems that were reluctant to back the initial GOP plan.

Previously, Shapiro has warned that the Senate plan could mean as many as 175,000 Pennsylvanians who gained access to treatment under Obamacare would see that opportunity vanish.

While avoiding Toomey's name, Shapiro referred to "our other senator" bragging about the fund. Shapiro, though, called it "nothing more lip service" that won't cover a quarter of what is needed to address the opioid and heroin epidemic nationwide.

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