EDITORIAL: Improve Obamacare

Sept. 21--A last-ditch effort by some Senate Republicans to kill Obamacare uses different means to achieve the same goals as its predecessor bills, and should suffer the same fate.

The most recent effort to eviscerate the health care law failed in July, after the Congressional Budget Office reported that it would end coverage for more than 20 million Americans while producing tax cuts for the top tier of earners. That bill also would have gone beyond the parameters of Obamacare to attack the broader Medicaid program, the state/federal insurance for the poor that also funds most nursing home stays for the elderly.

The new bill also would eviscerate Medicaid by converting into state-by-state block grants and allowing state governments to use it for other health-related purposes. And, like earlier defeated bills, it would eliminate about $300 billion in federal subsidies by 2026, making it impossible for millions of people to obtain health insurance.

Cynically, it would shift billions of dollars from states that expanded their Medicaid programs under Obamacare, including Pennsylvania, to states that did not do so for political reasons. Under Obamacare, those mostly Republican, mostly rural states still have the option to increase their Medicaid funding under Obamacare, but it would require political will.

Meanwhile, the Senate is under a self-imposed deadline of Sept. 30. After that date, its temporary rule suspending the filibuster regarding health care will expire, making it impossible to move a bill against Democratic opposition.

That deadline means that the Congressional Budget Office will not have the opportunity to assess the bill before it goes to a vote. That alone should preclude its passage.

But the hospital industry and dozens of health care advocacy organizations, including the American Heart Association and the March of Dimes, and dozens of governors have called for the bill's defeat.

The Senate should listen and turn to improving Obamacare.

___

(c)2017 The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

Visit The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) at citizensvoice.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.