Local health care execs: Fix, don’t repeal Obamacare

July 22--Republican proposals in the U.S. Senate to replace the Affordable Care Act or repeal the law without a replacement would harm Springfield-area residents and must be defeated in an expected Senate vote, local health care industry leaders said Friday.

"We don't think the ACA is perfect," Memorial Health System CEO Edgar Curtis said at a news conference at Memorial Medical Center's Center for Learning and Innovation. "But we want to work to improve it."

Curtis, who leads the not-for-profit system that includes Springfield's Memorial Medical Center and hospitals in Taylorville, Lincoln and Jacksonville, joined other health industry executives and a representative of the American Cancer Society for a news conference called by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield.

They all said the ACA, the signature legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama, should be tweaked to expand coverage and hold down insurance costs, but not repealed or changed drastically.

Curtis, chairman of the board of directors for the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, said 1 million Illinoisans have health insurance thanks to the ACA.

More than 350,000 purchase private plans, often with subsidies to reduce premiums and other out-of-pocket costs, through the state's federally operated health insurance exchange. Another 657,000 people have been able to enroll in the state's expanded Medicaid program because of their low incomes, according to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, said various Republican bills related to the ACA that are pending in the chamber would result in 22 million to 32 million Americans losing private health insurance or Medicaid coverage. Those bills would give wealthy individuals and businesses huge tax cuts, he added.

Seeing any Americans lose coverage would be "totally unthinkable," said SIU School of Medicine dean Dr. Jerry Kruse, noting that the ACA has led to an 80 percent reduction in the number of uninsured patients served by SIU doctors.

The influx of insurance payments has given SIU money to assist in opening primary care medical and dental clinics in downstate communities such as Quincy, Jacksonville and Lincoln, Kruse said.

St. John's CEO Dr. Charles Lucore said Congress needs to "build a foundation on the ACA and make our health care system better for all."

Health insurance coverage, whether through private policies or Medicaid, has shown to result in patients seeking medical care earlier, when diseases and health conditions are in more treatable stages, he said.

"We believe that everybody should have access to affordable health coverage," Lucore said.

The GOP effort to rip up the 2010 health care law known as Obamacare has had some positive side-effects, Durbin said, citing public support that's been rallied, so much so that polls show for the first time a majority of Americans support the ACA.

"Now people appreciate it," he said. "It's an interesting national debate that has informed the American public and motivated them."

Durbin said he hopes that failure of the GOP's legislative proposals next week leads to bipartisan legislation, as well as public hearings across the country and debate in Senate and House committees.

Durbin called upon elected officials in Congress, along with President Donald Trump -- a Republican who supports repealing and replacing Obamacare -- to come up with ways of expanding coverage and boosting federal subsidies for private coverage purchased through state-based exchanges.

A bipartisan solution may be difficult to achieve with Republicans, Durbin said after a reporter noted that both congressmen serving parts of Springfield -- U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Darin LaHood, R-Peoria -- voted for the ACA repeal-and-replace bill that passed the House with no Democratic votes.

For Democrats to be willing to work with Republicans, the GOP would have to stop trying to "sabotage" the Affordable Care Act, Durbin said.

He said he favors creating a Medicare-like "public option" for insurance in parts of the country where private insurers have stopped selling policies through the state exchanges.

-- Dean Olsen can be reached at dean.olsen@sj-r.com, 788-1543, twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.

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