EDITORIAL: Secure Medicaid

Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA)

June 25--The health care bill secretly concocted by 13 affluent white male senators is not simply an attack on Obamacare, but an assault on the broader Medicaid program. As such, it would eviscerate health care access for millions and constitute a wealth transfer from some of the nation's poorest people to some of its wealthiest.

Medicaid is a federal/state program and the nation's largest insurer. It covers nearly 50 percent of all births, 39 percent of all children and 76 percent of poor children. It provides coverage for 60 percent of all children and 30 percent of adults with disabilities, 40 percent of poor adults and -- the costliest part of the program -- 64 percent of all nursing home residents.

In 2016, Medicaid spent about $575 billion in state and federal money, $27.5 billion in Pennsylvania alone.

Beginning in 2014, Medicaid also became a principal device to expand health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Pennsylvania is one of 36 states that chose to use it.

The Senate bill not only seeks to eliminate the Medicaid expansion under the ACA, but to use that as an entry point to severely diminish Medicaid as a whole. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it would reduce Medicaid expenditures by $880 billion over 10 years.

Adding to the cynicism of that plan is that the senators would not actually dictate the cuts. Instead, the federal government would cap spending on a per-enrollee basis, leaving it to state governments to make up the difference or vastly cut the programs.

In Pennsylvania, according to the Commonwealth Fund, hospitals would experience an 81 percent increase in their amount of uncompensated care over 10 years.

The Affordable Care Act should be adjusted to deal with market conditions. But rather than this attack on Medicaid, Congress should solve the problems rather than create more.

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