Durbin, local health care execs: Fix, don’t repeal Obamacare

July 21--Republican proposals in the U.S. Senate to replace the federal Affordable Care Act or repeal the law without a replacement would harm the American public and must be defeated in an expected Senate vote, but the efforts have had some positive side-effects, Sen. Dick Durbin said at a news conference Friday in Springfield.

The threat that GOP plans pose to the 2010 law, also known as Obamacare, has rallied support, so much so that polls show for the first time that a majority of Americans support the ACA, Durbin said.

"Now people appreciate it," the Springfield Democrat said during a news conference at Memorial Medical Center's Center for Learning and Innovation. "It's an interesting national debate that has informed the American public and motivated them."

Joining Durbin at the podium were the chief executive officers of Memorial and HSHS St. John's, as well as a volunteer from the American Cancer Society and the dean of Springfield's Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. They all said the ACA, the signature legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, should be tweaked to expand coverage and hold down insurance costs, but not repealed or changed drastically.

"We don't think the ACA is perfect. I'm sure the senator doesn't, either," Memorial Health System CEO Edgar Curtis said. "But we want to work to improve it."

Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, said various Republican bills pending in the chamber would result in between 22 million and 32 million Americans losing private health insurance or Medicaid coverage, while wealthy individuals and businesses would get huge tax cuts.

Seeing any Americans lose coverage would be "totally unthinkable," SIU School of Medicine dean Dr. Jerry Kruse said.

St. John's CEO Dr. Charles Lucore said Congress needs to "build a foundation on the ACA and make our health-care system better for all."

Durbin said he hopes that failure of the GOP's legislative proposals next week leads to bipartisan legislation, as well as public hearings across the country and debate in Senate and House committees.

Durbin called upon elected officials in Congress, along with President Donald Trump -- a Republican who supports repealing and replacing Obamacare -- to come up with ways of expanding coverage and boosting federal subsidies for private coverage purchased through state-based exchanges.

Durbin said he also favors creating a Medicare-like "public option" for insurance in parts of the country where private insurers have stopped selling policies through the state exchanges.

This story will be updated.

-- Dean Olsen can be reached at dean.olsen@sj-r.com, 788-1543, twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.

___

(c)2017 The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill.

Visit The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill. at www.sj-r.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.