Himes, Murphy defend Affordable Care Act amid challenges from Trump administration

Aug. 18--NORWALK -- Two congressional lawmakers updated area healthcare providers and others on Republican efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act during a roundtable discussion at Norwalk Hospital on Friday afternoon.

"The president, every week, seems to come up with new and creative ways to try to destabilize the existing healthcare system," said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. "And it's kind of hard to figure out what the root causes are of his crusade to try to sabotage -- not just the Affordable Health Care Act but the broader healthcare system -- other than he's mad that the system has President Obama's signature."

Murphy, a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., and state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, led the discussion with about two dozen healthcare providers and consumers over what they described as "the Trump administration's latest efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act."

While Republicans under Trump haven't been able to repeal Obama's signature law, they have removed the individual coverage mandate, resulting in 13 million Americans losing coverage and increasing insurance premiums for others, according to Murphy.

He described the short-term insurance plans introduced by the Trump administration as "junk" and carrying fewer consumer protections.

Murphy said personal bankruptcies in the U.S. have been cut in half since the introduction of the Affordable Care Act. Beforehand, more than 1.5 million such bankruptcies were caused by medical debt. Since introduction of the law, more than 750,000 bankruptcies have been lopped off the court system, he added.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was passed in 2010 following fierce debate among Congressional lawmakers as well as the general public. While Republicans fought the law, some Democrats also opposed it, arguing instead for implementation of a single-payer healthcare system as is in place in many other industrialized nations.

Dr. Chuck Herrick, chairman of the psychiatry department for the Western Connecticut Health Network, which operates Norwalk Hospital, asked the lawmakers about the prospects of bringing such as system to the U.S.

"Is there a long-term plan that the Democratic Party is attempting to put together to address universal healthcare?" Herrick asked.

Murphy said the U.S. has come "pretty darn close" to universal health care through adoption of the Affordable Care Act. He has advised his congressional colleagues to "focus on the here and now."

"If we spend all of our time designing a health-care system that we can implement once we get control of the House, the Senate and the presidency, we may have lost the health-care system that we have now because of the changes that the president is making and the continued desire of this Congress to unwind what we have," Murphy said. "Remember, at the heart of that repeal bill is the end of Medicaid."

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Democrats have no "pre-baked plan" to introduce a single-payer system and that tensions exist within the party over the idea. He and Murphy lent their support to expanding Medicare, the federal health-care insurance program for people aged 65 and over as well as the disabled.

"Medicare is a program that pretty much everybody loves but it also has some very serious long-term sustainability issues," Himes said. "So there's already, given the demographics of the country, very substantial overhang liabilities that have not been funded by the Medicare system."

Under Murphy's plan, those liabilities would be dealt with by pricing Medicare in an actuarially neutral way, Himes said.

"Regardless, of the provider model or the administrator model that we go to, we are still left with this immensely difficult challenge of getting costs under control," Himes added.

Craig Glover, Norwalk Health Care Center CEO, said lawmakers can increase access to healthcare services amid the broader debate over whether to expand or repeal the Affordable Care Act. He said Medicare pays for only certain services, particularly in the areas of behavioral health. Licensed family therapy services aren't among them.

"When we see a Medicare patient, we can't provide that service," Glover said. "To me, that's a simple fix, a legislative thing ... saying here are these folks that have the credentials, the credential organizations are established. Why can't they be considered as folks that can provide a service?"

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