Skip to main content
Category

Uncategorized

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

Protect Our Care Statement on Trump Sabotage of Health Care and Anthem Pulling Out of Maine

Anthem Cites Uncertainty over Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments, which President Trump Has Threatened to Cancel, Among other Reasons, in Decision to Leave Market

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, one day after the failure of GOP’s latest iteration of a partisan repeal bill which would have thrown the country’s health care system into chaos, the effects of President Trump’s intentional sabotage of health care were once again made clear when Anthem announced it would exit Maine’s individual insurance market next year. Why?

“‘A stable insurance market is dependent on products that create value for consumers through the broad spreading of risk and a known set of conditions upon which rates can be developed,’ said Anthem spokesman Colin Manning in a statement. ‘Today, planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including the restoration of the health insurance tax on fully insured coverage and continued uncertainty around the future of cost sharing reduction subsidies.’”

As the Portland Press-Herald noted, however, actions taken by Congress — like the payment of cost-sharing reductions — could potentially bring Anthem back into the marketplace:

“Manning did not close the door on returning to the Maine marketplace if conditions stabilized. There are proposals in Congress to mandate that the cost-sharing reduction funding be paid to insurers, and other measures to stabilize the marketplace. ‘Our commitment to members has always been to provide greater access to affordable, quality healthcare, and we will continue to advocate solutions that will stabilize the market. As the marketplace continues to evolve and adjust to changing regulatory requirements and marketplace conditions, we will reevaluate whether a more robust presence in the exchange is appropriate in the future.’”

In response, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

“Anthem’s decision to pull out of Maine is the direct consequence of uncertainty created in the marketplace by Republicans pushing for partisan repeal of our health care and President Trump’s intentional efforts to sabotage the law,” said Woodhouse. “President Trump has been playing politics with cost-sharing reduction payments by continually threatening to cancel them even though they lower out-of-pocket costs for millions of Americans. This uncertainty has led to decisions like Anthem’s.

“President Trump and Republicans who have cheered him on and supported repeal are intentionally harming people’s health care for sheer politics. The American people know this and they will hold them accountable for undermining the health care of the American people. Instead of sabotaging America’s health care, Republicans should follow the example of Senator Susan Collins, who has called for Democrats and Republicans to work together to improve health care for the American people.”

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

Protect Our Care Statement On Latest Failure of Health Care Repeal

Facing opposition from every health care organization, bipartisan opposition in the Senate and overwhelming opposition from the American people, Senate Republicans abandoned their latest health care repeal scheme today, known as Graham-Cassidy-Heller. This is at least the fifth attempt in 2017 at health care repeal by Republicans in Congress without any bipartisan or public support. Every version of health care repeal would have raised premiums, resulted in millions of people without coverage, allowed insurance companies to gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions, re-implement lifetime limits and charge an age tax, and ended Medicaid as we know it.

In response, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

“None of these health care repeal bills were ever about health care, they were about political wins for the Republican Congress and President Trump,” Woodhouse said. “No matter how hard they try to repeal our health care, the American people keep winning. Make no mistake, though, too many Republicans in Congress refuse to move on and are already promising to revive zombie repeal. The American people must remain vigilant.

“It’s past time for Republicans to abandon partisan repeal, stand up to President Trump’s sabotage of our health care system and work across party lines to improve our health care system. Senators Alexander and Murray had started that important work and it’s the path we need to take now.

“The Trump Administration and Republican leaders face a fork in the road — will they continue to be the party of partisan health care repeal and sabotage? Everyone is watching.”

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

Protect Our Care Statement After Another Awful Day for Graham-Cassidy

Today was perhaps the worst day yet for Graham-Cassidy, the GOP’s latest secret, partisan health care repeal bill which would raise costs, lower options, remove protection for pre-existing conditions and end Medicaid as we know it. A new poll found just one-fifth of voters supporting the bill; CBO analysis found “millions” would lose their insurance; and Sen. Susan Collins announced her opposition to the legislation, calling it “as deeply flawed as the previous iterations.” In response, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“Today’s developments represent more major setbacks for the latest secretive, partisan effort to repeal the health care of the American people,” said Woodhouse. “A new CBS News poll this morning pegged support for the Graham-Cassidy repeal effort at a paltry 20 percent and terrible reviews of the latest draft poured in from expert voices and stakeholders across the country. And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the Congressional Budget Office released a partial analysis of the bill this afternoon which confirmed what every independent analysis has shown — that Graham-Cassidy repeal would strip millions of coverage and slash Medicaid. And to top it all off, Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she is a hard no on the bill.
 
“It should now be abundantly clear that partisan repeal is a loser both politically and substantively and that it’s time for Republicans to stop partisan repeal and return to bipartisan efforts to improve health care which were underway before Republicans pulled the plug. Until they do, the calls will continue, the ads will stay up and millions of Americans will write, email, tweet and protest until the effort to strip millions of health care and spike costs for millions more is dead, once and for all.”

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

The Reviews On Graham-Cassidy Are In: “The New Version of Cassidy-Graham May Be Crueler And More…

Today, the day of the only scheduled hearing on the GOP’s newest secret, partisan repeal bill, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) released yet another version of their bill. Like previous iterations, this bill would raise costs, lower options and end Medicaid as we know it — and go even further removing protections for people with pre-existing conditions. If Sens. Graham and Cassidy thought releasing a new version of their bill would make it better, they were highly mistaken. Take a look for yourself:

“The new version of Cassidy-Graham may be crueler and more cynical than the last.”

“[T]he new version appears to go further in weakening protections for sick people, apparently to win over conservatives who continue to express reservations, such as senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee.”

“The bill continues, however, to give states broad new authority to allow insurance companies to provide skimpier plans with far fewer benefits while charging higher premiums to the sick and the old.” [

“The new draft attempts to win over skeptical conservatives by further weakening consumer protections for Americans in bad health.”

“States would have even more flexibility to roll back some of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance regulations — including the guarantees it provides for people with pre-existing conditions.”

“‘This is like legislating blind…It is really hard to find an example of something where Congress was this reckless.”

“Only a few Republican senators care about the substance of the bill.”

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

President Trump Claims Alaska, Arizona, Maine and Kentucky Are “Big Winners” Under Graham-Cassidy…

SHOT:


CHASER:

Analysts Agree: Every State Loses Under Graham-Cassidy Affecting People’s Care. Multiple independent analyses — and even Trump’s own CMS — agree that states would be worse off if theGraham-Cassidy repeal bill passess. Over time, every state loses because Graham-Cassidy zeroes out its block grants and ratchets down its spending on the Medicaid per capita cap. This means people would not have access to the financial assistance to help lower their health care bills, and federal Medicaid funding would no longer adjust for public health emergencies, prescription drug or other cost spikes, or other unexpected increases in need.

  • Alaska stands to lose $2 billion from 2020–2027 and $14 billion over the next two decades.
  • Arizona stands to lose $19 billion from 2020–2027 and $133 billion over the next two decades.
  • Maine stands to lose $2 billion from 2020–2027 and $17 billion over the next two decades.
  • Kentucky stands to lose $11 billion from 2020–2027 and $81 billion over the next two decades.

And according to an AARP analysis, the bill’s age tax would lead to huge increases in total costs for a 60-year-old making $25,000 in each of these states:

  • $31,790 more in Alaska
  • $22,074 more in Arizona
  • $16,437 more in Maine
  • $13,118 more in Kentucky

Sad!

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

Fact Check: White House’s Marc Short Admits Graham-Cassidy Eliminates Protections For People With…

On Fox News Sunday this morning, White House legislative affairs director Marc Short admitted that the Graham-Cassidy health care repeal bill eliminates protections for people with pre-existing conditions.


Since the Affordable Care Act was passed, the most popular and essential provisions in the law has been coverage for pre-existing conditions. As many as half of all Americans have them, and Republicans have consistently paid lip service to continuing to ensure they will be covered. The GOP’s latest repeal bill, however, allows states to waive these protections — paving the way for insurance companies to once again discriminate against hundreds of millions of people. And as the bill heats up, so has the coverage highlighting the GOP’s plan…

Associated Press: Winners and losers in GOP’s last-ditch health overhaul

“Losers — People with health problems or with pre-existing medical conditions could be charged more if the state they live in obtains a waiver from current requirements that forbid insurers from charging higher premiums based on health status. States could also seek waivers from the current requirement that insurers cover 10 basic kinds of services, such as maternity and childbirth, or mental health and substance abuse treatment.”

The Hill: GOP takes heavy fire over pre-existing conditions

“The new ObamaCare repeal measure from Senate Republicans would give states a way to repeal protections for people with pre-existing conditions, a controversial move that opponents of the bill are denouncing.”

Vox: How Cassidy-Graham brings back preexisting conditions

“The new Republican plan to repeal Obamacare would bring preexisting conditions back to the individual market, allowing insurers to charge sick people higher premiums — or deny them coverage outright. ‘You can be charged more for a specific condition,’ says Chris Sloan, a senior manager at the health research firm Avalere, of the Cassidy-Graham plan that has begun to gain traction on Capitol Hill.”

Bloomberg: GOP Health Bill Would End Guarantee That Sick People Won’t Pay More

“Under the latest Republican bill, states could get a waiver allowing insurers to charge people more if they or a dependent have a pre-existing condition, or if they get sick and want to keep their insurance. The key provision in the bill has vague language requiring a state to first show how it ‘intends to maintain access to adequate and affordable health insurance coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions.’”

Politico: Kimmel, not Cassidy, is right on health care, analysts say

“But experts say that Cassidy and Graham’s bill can’t guarantee those protections and that Kimmel’s assessment was basically accurate because of the flexibility the bill gives states to set up their own health care systems. For example, health insurers could hike premiums for patients with pre-existing conditions if their states obtain waivers from Obamacare regulations — as Kimmel said.

NPR: Latest GOP Effort To Replace Obamacare Could End Health Care For Millions

“But many experts say the bill would have an impact similar to earlier Republican proposals for repealing the Affordable Care Act. Graham-Cassidy would eliminate coverage for many low-income people who gained insurance through the Medicaid expansion and could gut protections for people with existing medical conditions because states would be encouraged to seek waivers from the federal government’s rules on what must be covered.

The Hill: Blue Cross warns GOP repeal bill ‘undermines’ pre-existing condition rules

“The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association warned against a new GOP ObamaCare bill on Wednesday, saying it would ‘undermine’ protections for pre-existing conditions. ‘The bill contains provisions that would allow states to waive key consumer protections, as well as undermine safeguards for those with pre-existing medical conditions,’ the association said in a statement.”

NBC News: New GOP Plan Could Sow Health Care Chaos

“Most notably, states could free up insurers to charge people more for pre-existing conditions or reduce their plan’s benefits, which could open up customers to annual or lifetime caps on coverage.”

New York Magazine: 4 Ways Graham-Cassidy Would Make the Health-Care System Far Worse

“Under Graham-Cassidy, insurers could not refuse to cover someone because of a preexisting condition, but they would be able to make coverage so exorbitantly expensive that sick people couldn’t afford it.”

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

Reviews Are In: Graham-Cassidy Would Devastate Alaska

The reviews are in for Graham-Cassidy, the latest iteration of the GOP’s secret, partisan health care bill which would raise costs, lower choices, eliminate protections for pre-existing protections and gut Medicaid. There is perhaps no state which would fare worse than Alaska, which could see a 65% percent reduction in federal funding and cost increases to the tune of $31,790 more per year in premiums and out of pocket costs for a 60-year old making $25,000 per year starting in 2020. Alaska Governor Bill Walker said yesterday, “Alaska would fare very, very poorly. Nothing has been brought to my attention that would increase my comfort level.”

Just take a look at the headlines…

Alaska Dispatch News: State analysis predicts a rough road for Alaska under GOP health care legislation

The Midnight Sun: Alaska would lose 38 percent of federal health care funding under Graham-Cassidy

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Medicaid directors, including Alaska’s, sign statement critical of GOP health bill

NBC KTVU 2: Alaska DHSS releases preliminary analysis into Graham-Cassidy’s impact on Alaska

State of Reform: Alaska Commission on Aging comments on Graham-Cassidy

Daily News Miner: Studies: GOP health care proposal could prove costly for Alaskans

KTVA: Mother: Healthcare repeal could mean ‘difference between life and death’

Daily News Miner: Walker airs concern about latest GOP health care bill

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

Protect Our Care Statement on Trump Administration’s Continued Health Care Sabotage

Washington, D.C. — During a webinar this afternoon, HHS announced that HealthCare.gov would be offline 5 out of the 6 Sundays during the upcoming open enrollment period. This means that during the shortest open enrollment period ever, HealthCare.gov will be down for 3 full days. Today’s announcement follows recent decisions by the administration to cut navigator funding by 40 percent and the outreach and advertising budget by 90 percent.

“This is outrageous. It’s clear that even if Republicans continue to fail to repeal the Affordable Care Act that the Trump administration will go to any lengths to sabotage the law,” said Brad Woodhouse, Campaign Director for Protect Our Care. “From destabilizing the health care market by threatening not to pay cost sharing reduction payments to undermining open enrollment, the Trump Administration will pursue every tactic to undermine health care no matter how many Americans it hurts. The American people are sick of it — they oppose repeal and they will hold President Trump and Republicans in Congress accountable for sabotaging their health care.”


protectourcare
In Uncategorized

Frist, Wilensky, Daschle, Slavitt Join Growing Chorus Calling For Bipartisan Process On Health…

To: Interested Parties

From: Brad Woodhouse, Protect Our Care Campaign Director

Date: September 22, 2018

Subject: Frist, Wilensky, Daschle, Slavitt Join Growing Chorus Calling For Bipartisan Process On Health Reform; Condemn Reckless Rush On Graham-Cassidy Repeal

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Joining a rapidly growing number of health experts from across the political spectrum, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Future of Health Policy panel called for a return to bipartisan cooperation on health reform. The panel, which includes former Senate Majority Leaders Bill Frist and Tom Daschle; former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Andy Slavitt; and former administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration Gail Wilensky, condemned the partisan process around the Graham-Cassidy repeal bill. Rather than trying to ram thru the widely opposed Graham-Cassidy bill which Senator John McCain announced his opposition to today, the Senate should focus on productive bipartisan proposals such as the the Collins-Nelson market stabilization proposal and the Alexander-Murray discussions that were under way in the Senate HELP Committee.

The panel of bipartisan leaders said:

“Bipartisan, fully negotiated and analyzed reforms to our nation’s health care system are essential if we are to ensure access to quality, affordable health care coverage for all Americans. Cooperation across party lines is critical to creating legislation that will be sustainable over the long term. It is regrettable that consideration of the Graham-Cassidy amendment is taking place entirely outside of a productive bipartisan process.”

The announcement comes as non-partisan groups representing nearly every facet of the health care industry, including insurance companies, doctors, patients, hospitals and other patient-provider groups have come out in opposition to Graham-Cassidy. A sampling of these many groups include: American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, AARP, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, AHIP, the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the American Heart Association.

Yesterday, in an unprecedented joint statement, all the board of directors of the National Association of Medicaid Directors said: “Our members are committed to ensuring that the programs we operate improve health outcomes while also being fiscally responsible to state and federal taxpayers. In order to succeed, however, these efforts must be undertaken in a thoughtful, deliberative, and responsible way. We are concerned that this legislation would undermine these efforts in many states and fail to deliver on our collective goal of an improved health care system.”

Meanwhile, a group of governors representing both parties have come out in strong opposition to Graham-Cassidy. In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the governors said: “We ask you to support bipartisan efforts to bring stability and affordability to our insurance markets. Legislation should receive consideration under regular order, including hearings in health committees and input from the appropriate health-related parties. Improvements to our health insurance markets should control costs, stabilize the market, and positively impact coverage and care of millions of Americans, including many who are dealing with mental illness, chronic health problems, and drug addiction.”

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval added last night that “Flexibility with reduced funding is a false choice. I will not pit seniors, children, families, the mentally ill, the critically ill, hospitals, care providers, or any other Nevadan against each other because of cuts to Nevada’s health-care delivery system proposed by the Graham-Cassidy amendment.”

The many calls for bipartisanship and regular order echo those by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) for the Senate to return to regular order to consider how to best reform our health care system. Senate leadership should not jam a bill of this magnitude through with nothing more than a facade of a Finance Committee “hearing” and a CBO score that does not address how many people will lose coverage.

This growing chorus of leaders and experts from across the political spectrum are calling for a return to the bipartisan legislative process, rather than rushing to push through an unpopular bill without due consideration or analysis. It is time for the Senate to heed these calls.

protectourcare
In Uncategorized

Protect Our Care Statement on Sen. John McCain’s Announcement in Opposition to Graham-Cassidy

“Senator McCain established a test which all Senators should follow on health care: reforms to an issue of this importance and magnitude should be addressed on a bipartisan basis and should follow regular Senate procedure including hearings and expert witnesses. Graham-Cassidy fails this test in every regard, and Senator McCain is right to oppose this latest effort at partisan repeal,” said Brad Woodhouse, Campaign Director for Protect Our Care.

“But beyond process, Senators should oppose this latest repeal effort because it would devastate our health care system. Graham-Cassidy has been called radical and the worst of all repeal bills, and rightly so. It would deny coverage to 32 million Americans, end Medicaid expansion, undermine traditional Medicaid, impose an age tax on seniors and end protections against discrimination for people with pre-existing conditions. Graham-Cassidy is bad on process as Senator McCain has rightly noted, but it would be a dumpster fire for the American health care system. It’s time for Senator Mitch McConnell to set this partisan bill aside and allow bipartisan efforts to stabilize our health care system to move forward.”

Close Menu