EDITORIAL: When our elected leaders play politics with health care reform, we all lose

June 06--By now, we've all seen the basic elements of the debate unfold.

In fact, we've seen it more than once. In less than a decade, Americans have witnessed as both political parties have each tried to reform the way we deliver, consume and pay for health care. Each side has tried to find a system that worked, and each side has failed. Or, at least, each side hasn't succeeded.

Nominally, Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare are ongoing, but with a recently passed House bill seemingly dead on arrival in the Senate, the prospects for real, meaningful reform seem grim.

It's in the context of the most recent debate about health care reform that we heard from two Weld County residents with something at stake in the debate and insights into health care solutions.

Mitzi Moran is CEO of Sunrise Community Health, which provides health care to, among others, many of the most needy in Weld County and across northern Colorado. She said the Affordable Care Act wasn't perfect, but she worries the current reform effort -- dubbed the American Health Care Act -- could offer a cure that's worse than the disease.

For example, she pointed out, Obamacare allowed states to raise the qualifying income rules for Medicaid, which Colorado opted to do. It raised the income bar so a single person earning $16,000 per year or less or a family of four with an income of $32,700 per year or less could qualify for Medicaid.

In 2010, about 20 percent of Weld residents were uninsured. As of 2015, that number dropped to 8.5 percent. For Sunrise, about 50 percent of its patients were uninsured. When Medicaid expanded, that number dropped to about 25 percent. Because Sunrise was able to bill those now-insured patients for care, Sunrise could grow. The community health center has added 130 jobs since 2010, expanded buildings and renovated programs. The money was reinvested back into northern Colorado, she said.

Rep. Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican who voted for the AHCA in the House, said Obamacare isn't really working as designed and must be changed.

"We were promised full coverage by the Affordable Care Act and have about 26 million people uninsured now," Buck said. "We have people who can't afford the deductibles."

For his part, Buck said cuts, such as the ones proposed to Medicaid, are necessary.

"It is clear we have healthy, able-bodied men and women who can join the workforce who are not in the workforce, and we have got to cut benefits and incentivize employment in this country," Buck said.

We think both Moran and Buck have good points. Indeed, they help illustrate the daunting task lawmakers face when it comes to reforming health care. Unfortunately, despite the challenges and the sober, pragmatism meeting those challenges demands, too many in Congress seem focused on scoring political points. Much of the debate has focused on whether one side or the other will fulfill a campaign promise, and which side can gain more from failure.

Regardless of who wins this debate, we know who the losers are: consumers of health care.

It remains to be seen what Congress and the White House will do, but we hope they will get their eye on the ball and do what's best for those who need health care in our country.

-- The Tribune Editorial Board

___

(c)2017 the Greeley Tribune (Greeley, Colo.)

Visit the Greeley Tribune (Greeley, Colo.) at www.greeleytribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.