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ashoup
In News

Paul Ryan Spreads Lies To Save Face After Working To Dismantle Medicare For Years

Yesterday, Speaker Paul Ryan claimed that Republicans support Medicare. On the topic of health care and entitlement reform, Ryan said: “I think they want to see that we have Medicare on a path to solvency.”

The truth is that Paul Ryan and the Republican Party have attempted to gut Medicare every chance they could:

  1. Paul Ryan, December 2017: “It’s the biggest entitlement we’ve got to reform.” Ryan said: “We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit…Frankly, it’s the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the health care entitlements…In- think the president is understanding that choice and competition works everywhere in health care, especially in Medicare…This has been my big thing for many, many years. I think it’s the biggest entitlement we’ve got to reform.”
  2. Paul Ryan is targeting Medicare and Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest. Last December, President Trump signed a $1.5 trillion tax bill that disproportionately benefits the wealthy. How do Republicans plan on paying for it? Speaker Ryan’s answer is clear: “Frankly, it’s the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt.” In an attempt to pay for these tax cuts, in April, House Republicans passed a budget amendment that would slash Medicare funding by $537 billion over the next decade.
  3. Ryan proposed these cuts after passing a budget resolution last year that cut Medicare by $473 billion. The 2018 budget resolution passed by Republicans in December 2017 cut Medicare by $473 billion.
  4. Ryan has called to transform Medicare into a voucher program, which experts warn would lead to the “demise” of the program. Speaker Ryan has spoken about turning Medicare into a voucher system, and in Fall 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services filed a Request for Information concerning a shift in a “new direction” for Medicare, which Senate Democrats worried might entail a voucher system. Experts warn, and Republicans including Newt Gingrich acknowledge, that such a shift would lead to the demise of traditional Medicare as premiums increase.
  5. Led by Ryan, Congressional Republicans repealed several components of the ACA designed to help keep Medicare’s costs down, effectively driving up costs for the program. By repealing the requirement that most people have insurance, Congressional Republicans knowingly voted for a measure expected to increase the number of uninsured. The 2018 Medicare Trustees Report predicts that this increase will increase the share of subsidies paid to hospitals via Medicare. Similarly, by repealing the Independent Payment Advisory Board, Congressional Republicans took away a mechanism that slowed Medicare cost growth.
  6. A report published by the Medicare Trustees finds that the program is worse-off financially because of Paul Ryan and Congressional Republicans’ actions. In the 2018 Medicare Trustees Report, trustees found that actions taken by President Trump and Congressional Republicans actually push make Medicare less financially stable. The Trustees point to the elimination of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which had been developed to extend the solvency of Medicare and slow cost growth. Without the IPAB, there is no mechanism to achieve those ends. Similarly, Republican tax cuts will reduce income for Medicare. In conjunction, both actions damage the financial stability of Medicare.
ashoup
In News

Five Ways the Trump Administration is Dismantling Medicaid and Medicare

Today marks the 53rd anniversary of Medicaid and Medicare, two crucial health programs that serve as a lifeline to more than one-third of Americans. Despite the essential health care services these programs provide 125 million people, President Trump and Congressional Republicans have worked to dismantle Medicaid and Medicare. Here’s how:

  1. As the cost of drugs skyrocket, President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress will not allow Medicare to negotiate for better prescription drug prices. Under current law, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is explicitly prohibited from negotiating directly with drug manufacturers on behalf of Medicare Part D enrollees. Although it would decrease both federal spending and beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, a policy allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries was noticeably absent from President Trump’s recent prescription drug announcement.

  2. President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have repeatedly tried to slash funding for Medicaid and impose per-capita caps on coverage. Last year, the House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA) repeal bill, which included a per capita limit on federal Medicaid spending that would have resulted in huge cuts to Medicaid across states. After failing to pass the AHCA in the Senate, Republicans have continued to launch relentless attacks on Medicaid. Last December, the Trump Administration budget called for $1.4 trillion in cuts to Medicaid.

  3. The Trump Administration is encouraging states to impose work requirements and other bureaucratic restrictions on Medicaid enrollment in order to deny coverage. Experts warn that work requirements are fundamentally bureaucratic hurdles designed to restrict access to health care rather than increase employment. Previous examples show that requiring enrollees verify their employment or work-related activities will reduce enrollment among those eligible for Medicaid.

    Requiring people to work to maintain Medicaid coverage is particularly burdensome for older adults. Less than half of American adults ages 55 to 64 work. Some are retired, and for many others, chronic health conditions make it difficult to maintain steady employment.

  4. President Trump and Congressional Republicans are targeting Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest. Last December, President Trump signed a $1.5 trillion tax bill that disproportionately benefits the wealthy. How do Republicans plan on paying for it? Speaker Ryan’s answer is clear: “Frankly, it’s the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt.” In an attempt to pay for these tax cuts, in April, House Republicans passed a budget amendment that would slash Medicaid funding by $114 billion in a single year alone.

  5. Congressional Republicans have also repeatedly voted to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest by cutting funding for Medicare. The 2018 budget resolution passed by Republicans in December 2017 cut Medicare by $473 billion and more recently, the FY2019 budget passed by Republicans on the House Budget Committee cuts Medicare by an additional $537 billion.

As we celebrate this important health care anniversary, Protect Our Care calls on our leaders to protect health care for our most vulnerable and end their assault on the health and wellbeing of the millions of Americans who rely on Medicare and Medicaid.

###

ashoup
In News

Trump Drug ‘Plan’ Could Punish Seniors With Cancer

Washington, D.C. – After new research from Avalere and a CBS News investigation exposed the dangers seniors with cancer could face under the Trump Administration’s drug pricing blueprint, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse said:

“The Administration has no answers on how its proposed changes to Medicare would protect seniors from prohibitively high out-of-pocket costs for specialized cancer treatment. This is more proof that the Trump Administration’s drug pricing ‘plan’ is a day late and a dollar short. Americans are already worried enough about rising health care costs; let’s not find new ways for the Trump Administration to make care more expensive.”

A tricky wrinkle in Trump’s Medicare Rx “Blueprint”

CBS News // Walecia Konrad // May 22, 2018

The Trump administration’s “Blueprint” to lower drug prices and reduce patient costs made one thing clear: The government will not directly negotiate with drug companies to secure lower prescription prices. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t proposing changes that would dramatically alter the way Medicare pays for some of the most expensive drugs, and in the process, potentially raise out-of-pocket costs for some of the country’s sickest patients.

A cornerstone of the Trump plan calls for all Medicare drug payments to be consolidated under Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan for Medicare enrollees administered by private insurers. Under Part D, insurers and middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) negotiate with drug companies for discounted prices in exchange for the drug companies’ products being included in the PBMs’ list of covered drugs.  

But drugs intravenously administered in physicians’ offices, such as chemotherapy and vaccines, are usually covered as a medical treatment under Medicare Part B. Physicians buy these drugs directly from manufacturers, and Medicare reimburses doctors for the drugs’ average sales price plus 6 percent.

Alex Azar, Health and Human Services secretary and former president of the U.S. division of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY), has been touting the move to consolidate Medicare drug payments during several public appearances since he and President Trump unveiled the Blueprint earlier this month. Azar and other proponents of the plan point out that the 6 percent markup included in Medicare Part B creates incentives for doctors to purchase more expensive drugs to get a higher dollar profit. Better, said Azar, for insurance companies and PBMs in Medicare Part D to negotiate discounts and lower prices.

Pharmaceutical companies are against the idea, partly because they generally are paid more under Part B than Part D. “Bringing negotiation to Part B drugs is such a potent way to bring down prices that PhRMA is already protesting the idea,” Azar said in a recent speech at the American Enterprise Institute in which he referred to the drug industry trade group called Pharmacuetical Research and Manufacturers.

But Azar and others have shed little light on exactly how this change would take place, leaving patients worried about the potential for astronomically higher out-of-pocket costs.  

Sky-high co-pays?

“If they shift Medicare Part B medicines to Medicare Part D without making any changes in the Part D structure, it will have a horrible effect on patients,” said David Mitchell, president and founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs. Mitchell, who’is currently undergoing cancer treatment, noted that he and most cancer patients with Medicare Part B have supplemental insurance that covers out-of-pocket costs, including drug co-pays, incurred under Medicare Part B insurance.

Mitchell points to his own regimen of cancer drugs, which adds up to about $23,000 each time he visits the infusion clinic. He pays $2,100 a year for a supplemental policy that covers his Part B co-payments. Medicare Part D recipients are not eligible to buy supplemental prescription drug insurance.

If his drugs were to fall under Medicare Part D, Mitchell explained that he would quickly pay enough in out-of-pocket co-pays to fall into a category called catastrophic coverage. Once in that category, Mitchell would pay 5 percent of his drug costs, which he estimates would equal about $15,000 in a year’s time. “That’s a completely unaffordable amount,” he said.

An analysis released Monday from health care consultants Avalere Health backs up Mitchell’s point. In 2016, average out-of-pocket costs were about 33 percent higher for Part D-covered new cancer therapies than for those covered in Part B. “Medicare beneficiaries typically have lower out-of-pocket costs in Part B — especially since so many seniors carry supplemental coverage,” said Richard Kane, senior director at Avalere, in a press release. “Any proposal for shifting drugs to Part D needs to account for these differences.”  

Logistical problems

“Having a doctor purchase, mix and handle the infusion of a drug is a completely different medical experience than going to the pharmacy and picking up a bottle of pills,” said Marc Samuels, founder of ADVI Health and former White House health policy adviser for President George H.W. Bush. Cancer treatments and other physician-administered drugs are complicated and personalized, often changing from week to week or even day to day depending on the patient’s reaction to the drugs.  

Patients and physicians are wondering how the actual delivery of drugs would work. “I heard someone say that I’d have to go to the pharmacy to pick up my drugs then bring them to the infusion center,” Mitchell of Patients for Affordable Drugs said. “That isn’t going to work.”

What’s more, Samuels argued that the 6 percent markup that doctors receive under Medicare Part B isn’t as profitable as it may sound.  Doctors purchase these expensive drugs then often have to discard them because the patient has serious side effects or needs a different drug for another reason. “The 6 percent is designed to help cover that cost,” Samuels said.

For now the Trump administration isn’t disclosing any details about how this part of its Blueprint would work. “I’m hoping,” said Mitchell, “we can work with the administration to find a way to allow negotiations to take place without harming patients.”

ashoup
In News

New Data: GOP Cries Crocodile Tears on Prescription Drugs as Big Pharma Reaps Rewards

Washington, DC – Axios is reporting that America’s largest pharmaceutical companies are using their windfall from the GOP tax scam to drive up their own stock prices to the tune of $50 billion, “a sum that towers over investments in employees or drug research and development.” Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse responded:

“Every day millions of Americans struggle to afford their prescription drugs, too often being forced to choose between their medication and a meal. But while they cry crocodile tears over the cost of prescription drugs, President Trump and the GOP are giving Big Pharma an even bigger windfall through their tax bill. This isn’t about patients, it’s about profits.

“Everywhere you look, you can find Republicans voting to raise prescription drug costs, from the health care repeal that would get rid of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit to confirming a Big Pharma executive who let drug prices skyrocket to lead HHS. Now, it turns out, their tax plan is enriching Big Pharma at patients’ expense.

“It’s time for President Trump and his allies in Congress to work for patients instead of profiteers. Enough is enough – it’s time for Republicans to stop making health care more expensive.”

Pharma’s $50 billion tax windfall for investors

Axios // Bob Herman // February 22, 2018

The pharmaceutical industry is using a large portion of its windfall from Republicans’ corporate tax cuts to boost its stock prices. Nine drug companies are spending a combined $50 billion on new share buyback programs, a sum that towers over investments in employees or drug research and development.

The bottom line: All of those buybacks were announced during or after the passage of the Republican tax bill. That money is enriching hedge funds, other Wall Street investors and top drug company executives, but it isn’t necessarily helping patients.

That’s not all: Some drug companies also increased quarterly dividends following the tax overhaul. For example, AbbVie increased its cash dividend by 35% while at the same time committing to a new $10 billion share repurchase program.

  • Dividends dole out cash to existing investors, and share buybacks boost a company’s stock price by making shares scarcer.
  • The new tax law, which slashed the corporate tax rate and made it easier for companies to repatriate overseas cash, has made dividends and share buybacks quick and appealing options.
  • Several drug company buybacks are a lot larger than prior share repurchase programs.
  • Stock returns help people with 401k retirement accounts, but they mostly benefit wealthy investors and executives. And half of U.S. households don’t own any stock.

The big picture: The large buyback programs are rolling out while the same pharmaceutical companies raise drug prices and while Americans struggle to afford their prescriptions.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main drug industry trade group, referred share buyback questions to employer groups.

ashoup
In News, Roundup

Coverage Roundup: Trump’s Budget Revives Health Care Repeal

As the dust settles around today’s surprise move by President Trump to revive the Graham-Cassidy plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act and gut Medicaid by including it in his annual budget blueprint, here’s a roundup of initial coverage:

Los Angeles Times: “The White House is doubling down on the repeal effort, calling for massive cuts to healthcare assistance in its 2019 budget … Cuts of this magnitude – which parallel repeal legislation pushed unsuccessfully by GOP congressional leaders last year – would likely leave tens of millions more Americans without health coverage, independent analyses have indicated.”

Wall Street Journal: “The budget proposal includes $68.4 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, a 21% drop from the funding level enacted last year. The proposal would also revive a repeal of the Affordable Care Act and cut spending on Medicare and Medicaid. It calls for enactment of a law to scrap the ACA and instead give block grants to states to establish their own health systems, a plan modeled after GOP legislation that failed to pass last year.”

Washington Post: “On healthcare for low-income Americans, Trump’s budget calls for cutting federal Medicaid funding by $250 billion over the next 10 years, as the administration envisions passing a law ‘modeled closely’ on a Senate Republican proposal that failed last fall to repeal the Affordable Care Act…  Experts say the overall reduction in government spending would cost millions of Americans their health insurance.”

CNBC: The new budget proposal also would seek a rollback of Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid benefits to poor adults. Medicaid offers health coverage to primarily low-income people. Before Obamacare, most states either denied Medicaid coverage to people who did not have dependent children or set very low limits on how much a person could earn and still qualify for coverage.

Business Insider: “The budget contains cuts to funding for Medicare and other social safety net programs. During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised not to cut funding to these programs.”

USA Today: “The budget proposes repealing the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid and limiting the amount of money states receive for the jointly-funded health care program for the poor. It would also end after two years the private insurance subsidies for people who don’t get coverage through a government program or an employer, while giving states grants to develop their own programs.”

STAT News: “The proposals are a hodgepodge of relatively narrow policies that take aim at various parts of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. One would reduce the amount of money doctors and hospitals are reimbursed for hospital-administered drugs under Medicare Part B; another would let some states engage in more aggressive negotiation for drugs in their Medicaid programs. Others take aim at a drug discount program for hospitals and at seniors’ out-of-pocket spending.”

New York Times: The budget once again calls for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, an effort that has been tried and failed previously and which Republican leaders have largely abandoned as a priority.”

ashoup
In News

Trump Administration Continues War on Health Care with FY19 Budget Blueprint

After President Trump released a budget blueprint that would continue his Administration’s assault on the American health care system, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“With today’s budget, the Trump Administration is doubling down on its relentless war on  American health care. By asking Congress to revive the deeply unpopular Graham-Cassidy repeal bill that ended protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, gutted Medicaid, ripped away coverage from millions, and raised costs for millions more, while also proposing drastic cuts to Medicare, Trump has chosen to ignore the American public’s overwhelming preference for a bipartisan path forward on health care. Instead, the Trump Administration continues its assault on the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid.

“As a deadly flu epidemic continues to sicken people across America, President Trump’s budget today shows that he remains worse than indifferent to our health care. Enough is enough: the sabotage, cuts, and repeal attempts must stop. Congress should declare this budget’s anti-health care proposals dead on arrival.”

BACKGROUND

Today’s Trump budget proposes a $1.7 trillion cut to Medicare and other mandatory programs and pushes Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act and gut Medicaid by passing legislation modeled on Graham-Cassidy.

ashoup
In News, Stories

PHOTOS: Health Care Protests at GOP Retreat in West Virginia

As Congressional Republicans retreated to West Virginia to discuss their plans for 2018, they were greeted by protesters who are furious about the GOP’s ongoing war on health care. Hundreds of protesters greeted Vice President Pence at the airport, lined up along the President’s motorcade route, and made sure every Member of Congress in attendance knew just how furious voters are about their party’s health care sabotage:

[Beckley Register-Herald]

The protesters made clear just how devastating the GOP’s health care attacks would be to West Virginia:

“An issue on the minds — and signs — of many of the protesters was health care. Hanno Kirk, 78, of Lewisburg, said his main concern as a health care provider is the 230,000 people in West Virginia who are in danger of losing health insurance if the GOP succeeds in dismantling the Affordable Care Act. ‘It’s totally misguided to attempt to do away with the ACA simply because it’s called ‘Obamacare,’ Kirk said, noting he used to be a ‘liberal Republican in Washington, D.C., back when there was such a thing as a liberal Republican.’ Stephen Josephine Fritsch of Harrisburg, Pa., the daughter of a combat veteran, said it appears the values her father fought for are slipping away. ‘This is America,’ she said. ‘It should be we the America, not me the America.’ Fritsch expressed concern about the state of U.S. health care under GOP leadership.”

“‘Well, we have a lot of issues in West Virginia,’ said psychotherapist and protester Hanno Kirk. ‘As a healthcare provider, I am acutely aware how many of my patients are reliant on Medicaid and Medicare and CHIPS. And if those two are eliminated, as there is a threat to that, we would have a huge number of uninsured people.’” [WVVA, 1/31]

[Beckley Register-Herald]

Protesters gathered at Senator Moore-Capito’s office ahead of Congressional Republicans’ arrival:

Protesters are hitting the streets in Charleston, a day ahead of the GOP retreat at The Greenbrier, to voice their concerns about cuts to health care and Medicaid. A rally Wednesday evening included people from all over the eastern U.S. gathering in Charleston, including one woman from as far away as Vermont. It is a test run for a bigger demonstration on Thursday in Greenbrier County. By the end of the night Wednesday, the group is expecting about 500 advocates in town — standing together against Medicaid and health care cuts. [WSAZ, 1/31]

They met Vice President Pence at the Charleston airport:

“‘We’re just ready for that change,’ Debbie Naeter says. She’s right outside the Greenbrier Valley Airport gates with protestors prepared to welcome Vice President Pence with their concerns. ‘It’s health care, and fracking, and equality, and being nice again,’ she says.” [WDBJ, 1/31]

Engaged activists traveled from all over the country to make their voices heard:

“Protesters came from all over the United States. WDBJ7’s Sara Machi spoke with protesters from West Virginia, New York City, Charlotte, and Arkansas. Many protesters present Thursday said they have decided to protest because of issues important to them. These issues include immigration, healthcare, the recent tax bill, clean water, and other issues.” [WDBJ, 2/1]

[Beckley Register-Herald]

As Paul Ryan raised the specter of “entitlement reform” inside, protesters at the gates of the five-star resort raised awareness about the GOP’s proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid:

“President Donald Trump’s address to Republican congressmen at The Greenbrier resort in southern West Virginia has drawn several hundred protesters with signs and chants criticizing him and calling for living wages, protecting Medicaid and Medicare, defending immigrants and decrying hate speech.” [AP, 2/1]

[Twitter]

The bottom line from protesters: Enough is enough. It’s time to stop the Republican war on our care.

“While President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence plan to attend a GOP congressional retreat in West Virginia, some health care advocates plan to attend rallies to protest Medicaid and health care cuts… Organizers said in a news release that West Virginia health care advocates would join more than 500 people gathering to protest and send a message ‘that any cuts to health care — the issue expected to top the GOP’s agenda — will be met with a fierce nationwide fight.’” [WCHS, 1/31]

[Beckley Register-Herald]

Lest anyone be confused, they made clear what the protests were really about:

“Sammi Brown, the federal campaigns director for Our Children, Our Future, said this started after activists in Greenbrier County reached out to individual groups, and word of the action reached organizations in West Virginia and other states shortly afterward. ‘It is folks all along the East Coast that are standing in solidarity with West Virginia. We are expecting upwards of 600 people tomorrow to march with us,’ she said. Brown said the protest was not about Trump but rather the agenda of what she called ‘attacking health care.’” [West Virginia Metro News, 1/31]

And Vice President Pence found one special health care protester – West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. After Pence chided him for not voting for the GOP tax scam, which kicked millions of Americans off of their coverage, Manchin hit back:

[Twitter]

As President Trump, Vice President Pence and GOP Members of Congress were shown upon their arrival in West Virginia, Americans, from local organizers to United States senators are furious about their repeal and sabotage memo. They’re furious over their weakening of the Affordable Care Act; they’re furious over their attempts to gut Medicare and Medicaid; and they’re furious over their unnecessary attacks on America’s health care system. And if they don’t stop, it’s only going to get worse.

Enough is enough – it’s time for the GOP to end their war on health care.

ashoup
In News

Seniors’ Medical Expenses Rising as GOP War on Health Care Spikes Costs Nationwide

Meta Capitol

“Lost in the State of the Union coverage was yesterday’s new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation highlighting massive increases in out-of-pocket medical costs for seniors – and they’re projected to keep skyrocketing. While President Trump has claimed he wants to lower health care costs, including the prescription drug costs that drive seniors’ medical expenses, the reality is the opposite. President Trump has consistently supported proposals that make health care more expensive, from repeal legislation which would have allowed insurance companies to charge people over 50 an ‘age tax’ with rates five times higher to the tax scam that’s set to raise premiums double digits, and he recently put a Big Pharma executive in charge of HHS. The first step toward containing costs for American seniors and families is for Trump and the GOP to end their war on Americans’ health care and stop paying allegiance to Big Pharma.”

Seniors’ out-of-pocket medical costs are rising

Axios // Sam Baker // January 30, 2018

On average, Medicare beneficiaries are spending about 41% of their Social Security income on out-of-pocket health care costs, according to new research from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And half of all Medicare beneficiaries spent roughly 14% of their total income — not just from Social Security — on health care.

Why it matters: Health care is eating up more and more of everyone’s income — but that’s an especially difficult burden for seniors, who often live on fixed incomes.

The gritty details, per KFF:

  • These percentages are expected to grow.
  • Those expenses include premiums, cost-sharing, and spending on services Medicare doesn’t cover, such as long-term care.
  • Not surprisingly, older, sicker and poorer seniors were all more likely to spend a greater share of their income on health care expenses.

Don’t forget: This is also a good reminder that while “Medicare for all” polls well as a synonym for single payer, actual Medicare for all would still leave plenty of room for out-of-pocket spending and even privately administered benefits.

Go deeper: Corporate profits have dramatically outpaced wages and health benefits since the turn of the century.

ashoup
In News

2018 Is the Year of Health Care

To: Interested Parties

From: Brad Woodhouse, Campaign Director, Protect Our Care

Subject: 2018 Is the Year of Health Care

Date: January 2, 2018

In 2017, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress waged a war on our health care – from ACA repeal to Medicaid cuts to health care sabotage. Under their planned agenda, costs would rise, coverage would fall and millions of Americans would lose protections against abuses from insurance companies.

The story of 2018 is a simple one: it will be the year the politics of health care will haunt Republicans at the polls. Poll after poll shows that health care is the number one issue on voters’ minds and that they strongly oppose the GOP war on health care. Relatedly, the Affordable Care Act is more popular than ever, and more than 8 million people have already signed up for coverage in open enrollment.

Now, some Republicans want to keep their war on health care going.  They do so at their political peril.

The American people see health care as their top issue.

  • 48 percent in a recent Associated Press-NORC poll rated health care as their top concern for 2018, a number double-digits ahead of the second issue, taxes.
  • Health care topped people’s concerns in a POLITICO/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll. The number one issue people wanted Congress and President Trump to address was to renew funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
  • Health care was the most important issue to people in a recent Economist/YouGov poll (18 percent), followed by Social Security (17 percent).

The American people reject President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ approach to health care.

  • The recent AP/NORC poll had President Trump’s approval/disapproval on health care at 30/70. More voters disapprove of his performance on health than any other issue.
  • According to the November 2017 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, “The majority of the public (60 percent) – including majorities of Democrats (89 percent) and independents (57 percent) – do not trust President Trump to do what’s best when it comes to health care in this country.”
  • FOX News polling showed only 33% of voters approve of President Trump’s work on health care while 60% disapprove.  

And it will cost Republicans politically if they continue their war on health care, like it did last November.

  • The latest Quinnipiac poll showed 41% of voters as being less likely to vote for a Senator or Member of Congress who backed the GOP’s health care plan with only 19% more likely to support them.
  • Health care was the most important issue for people who voted in the Virginia gubernatorial race in November, more than double any other issue, and Ralph Northam beat Ed Gillespie by 54 points, 77-23, among these voters.
  • In Maine, voters backed a referendum to endorse a key element of the Affordable Care Act by an 18-point margin (59-41), the first time the ACA had ever been on the ballot.

The Affordable Care Act is more popular than it has ever been.

  • Pew Research Center: “Today, more Americans say the 2010 health care overhaul has had a mostly positive than mostly negative effect on the country (44% versus 35%), while 14% say it has not had much effect. Overall support for the health care law also has grown since last year. Currently, 56% of the public approves of the law while 38% disapproves, according to a new national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted Nov. 29-Dec. 4.”
  • A Public Policy Poll for Protect Our Care found that 57% say they approve of the Affordable Care Act to just 36% who say they disapprove – a 21 point gap. This is up 5 points from a September poll done for Save My Care, where approval was 54/38.
ashoup
In News

She Did What?! Susan Collins’ Position on the Tax Bill Hurts the Middle Class, the Environment and Health Care, Undermining Her Claims to Leadership on All of These Issues

For years, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) has claimed to support the middle-class, favored the expansion of health care coverage and pledged to protect the environment. The GOP tax scam hammers the middle class, guts health care coverage and will irreparably hurt the environment. Who is harmed under this bill, and why does Sen. Collins continue to support it?

Mainers’ Health Because Premiums Will Rise and Medicare Cuts Are on the Horizon. Analysis from the Center for American Progress found that Mainers will see their premiums increase $2,350 under this tax bill. 50,000 Mainers will lose their insurance, and Medicare funding will see a $120 million cut in 2018. The immediate cuts are not the only cuts facing health care, either. In a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), CBO Director Keith Hall made clear what Republicans have long said won’t be the case: Medicaid cuts are coming, to the tune of $18 billion. And Republicans, from Paul Ryan to Marco Rubio, are now admitting these cuts will be the next step. Sen. Collins previously highlighted Medicaid cuts as one of her primary concerns with GOP health care legislation and told CBS, “I don’t want seniors to have the anxiety of wondering whether the tax bill somehow is going to trigger a cut in Medicare.”

Middle Class Mainers’ Pocketbooks. The tax scam benefits the wealthiest earners at the expense of the middle class Per JCT analysis, “high-income households would get the largest tax cuts as a share of after-tax income, on average, while households with incomes below $30,000 would on average face a tax increase.” Sen. Collins previously criticized tax cuts for the highest earners.

Saddling Future Generations with More Debt. The tax bill would raise the budget deficit by nearly $1.5 trillion according to every independent analysis which has been conducted. The Joint Committee on Taxation found that the bill would cost $1.63 trillion, the Penn Wharton Budget Model found that it would cost $1.64 trillion and the Tax Foundation found that it would cost $1.78 trillion. Sen. Collins previously said she didn’t want the tax bill to “blow a hole in the deficit.”

Allowing More Drilling in Alaska. Buried in the bill is a provision allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). ANWR drilling is a clear giveaway to the country’s largest oil companies at the expense of the planet, and is unpopular on both sides of the aisle. Twelve GOP Members of Congress recently urged its removal from the bill, and poll found wide opposition across eight key GOP Congressional districts. Sen. Collins previously was the only Republican to vote against ANWR drilling in a budget proposal.

Sen. Collins, it’s clear that the vast majority of this country will be harmed under this bill. It’s massively unpopular, with the opposition nearly doubling those who favor it. And Mainers are already furious about it. It’s not too late to change your vote – come out against this appalling piece of legislation, and instead return to the principles you’ve claimed to want to advance.

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