Portman op-ed on the Senate path on health care

Health Care Bill Approved by House Leaves Too Many Behind

By Rob Portman

Cincinnati Enquirer

https://goo.gl/W7AVP0

Over the past several years, lots of Ohio families are feeling the middle-class squeeze. Wages still haven't recovered from the recession and yet expenses are going up. For most people in Ohio, their fastest growing cost is health care.

According to the Ohio Department of Insurance, health insurance premiums in the individual market in Ohio have nearly doubled since the Affordable Care Act - known as Obamacare - went into effect years ago. Small business premiums have gone up 82 percent. Premiums for this year are, on average, 13 percent higher than last year's premiums. For two major Ohio plans, premiums went up by about 39 percent. And that doesn't even include rising deductibles and co-pays. Families can't afford that - nor can small businesses.

And there have been other consequences of the Affordable Care Act. Last spring, 22,000 Ohioans lost their health plans because InHealth Mutual, the Affordable Care Act nonprofit set up to serve Ohio, declared bankruptcy. Nationwide, 15 out of 23 nonprofit health insurers created by the Affordable Care Act have gone bankrupt. These bankruptcies cost us, taxpayers, more than $1.2 billion, and many of those who lost their coverage had already paid into deductibles on previous plans and needed to start over to meet their deductible. That's just not fair.

Competition and choice have been going down, too. In Ohio, we've gone from having 17 companies offering insurance on the exchanges in 2016 to just 11 this year. Twenty of Ohio's 88 counties - nearly one in four - have access to only one insurer on the exchange. There's no choice and no competition to get costs down.

Simply put, the status quo on health care is unsustainable. The Affordable Care Act isn't affordable, it isn't working, and it is hurting too many of our neighbors in Ohio. The promises made - lower premiums, being able to keep our doctor and your plan - haven't been kept. Congress has the responsibility to fix this mess and lower health care costs.

At the same time, these changes must be made in a way that doesn't leave people behind. One part of this discussion has focused on Medicaid, which is an important federal program that provides health care benefits to 70 million Americans who live below the federal poverty level. The Affordable Care Act allowed states, including Ohio, to expand Medicaid eligibility to 100 percent to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. In our state, we've seen more Ohioans who are struggling with addiction receive opioid treatment - due to heroin, prescription drug, and fentanyl addiction - under expanded Medicaid. We also know, however, that the current Medicaid program is not financially sustainable over the long term, so we must make reforms to protect and preserve it now so that Ohioans can count on this program in the future.

After the House of Representatives passed its bill, I said I could not support it as currently constructed because it does not do enough to help those currently receiving coverage, including the 700,000 Ohioans who receive health care through expanded Medicaid, especially those who are receiving treatment for drug addiction. Our state is in the midst of an unprecedented drug crisis right now. About half of all expanded Medicaid dollars spent in Ohio go to mental health and substance abuse treatment - much of that driven by the opioid epidemic. I'm going to continue to work with my colleagues on solutions that ensure those who are impacted by this epidemic can continue to receive treatment.

I've been leading discussions right now with colleagues like Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Cory Gardner of Colorado - whose states have expanded Medicaid, just like Ohio. Back in early March, we sent a letter to Senate Republican leadership to let them know that we could not support legislation that did not provide stability for those on expanded Medicaid. We've been meeting for months now, and met again this week, to discuss potential solutions about how best to ensure that those on expanded Medicaid continue to have access to quality health coverage.

We also continue to engage with our nation's governors, many of who share my concerns about Medicaid, but who also want more flexibility to ensure they can design health care programs that meet the individual needs of their states. Together, we will continue examining how to make our health care system better, with lower costs, better choices, and quality care.

My message to my colleagues is simple: we can and must do better than the Affordable Care Act, but let's do it the right way. The Affordable Care Act has not met its promises to the American people. I'm going to do everything I can to protect Ohio's interests and ensure that our health care system works better for all Ohioans.

Kevin Smith

Senator Rob Portman

o: (202) 224-7215

c: (571) 242-1287

@KGSmith