EDITORIAL: Seek bipartisan approach to improve current health care law

July 11--The broadest possible access to health care isn't only a public health or moral imperative; it's a foundational economic issue. In every state, and even more so in Pennsylvania, health care is an economic driver. Across the commonwealth, about 600,000 people are employed directly in the delivery of health care, and it supports hundreds of thousands of other jobs.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the House and Senate Republicans' health care bills would decrease federal spending on health care at the expense of leaving between 22 million and 24 million Americans without health insurance.

Beyond that, the Senate bill seeks to roll back Medicaid coverage beyond the expansion under the Affordable Care Act, to cap its growth under the original program.

According to an analysis by the Commonwealth Foundation, the combined impact of the Senate provisions would have a significant, negative economic effective across 10 years in every state except Hawaii. Net direct and indirect job losses in Pennsylvania would be the third highest among the states, at about 110,000, behind New York's 132,000 and California's 117,000.

The study, by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, found that tax reductions within the law would mitigate the short-term economic impact, but that job losses and resulting economic problems would increase gradually over a decade.

The current health care law needs revisions but the evisceration contemplated in both pending bills is not the answer.

Senate Majority Leader said Friday that if he can't round up 50 votes for the Senate bill, he will have to seek a bipartisan approach to improving the current law.

That is the approach that he and House Republicans should have taken all along. The ACA itself, given its importance to health care access and the economy, should be addressed with a scalpel rather than a buzz saw.

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