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ashoup
In News

Republicans Must Finally Confront Trump’s Disastrous Handling of Opioid Crisis

Inaction + Funding Cuts = Sabotage

Washington, DC – After former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, a member of President Trump’s Opioid Commission, said this Administration’s “efforts to address the epidemic are tantamount to reshuffling chairs on the Titanic,” and other leading advocates spoke out against the Administration’s nonresponse, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“With members of Trump’s own commission decrying the President’s non-response to the raging opioid epidemic, Republicans must finally face up to this Administration’s failure to confront the nation’s most urgent health care crisis. Despite his campaign-trail promises, Trump has done worse than nothing: his attacks on the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy are actively sabotaging Americans’ access to addiction treatment. Enough is enough: Congressional Republicans need to end their partisan war on health care, stand up against President Trump’s sabotage, and put their money where their mouths are on the opioid epidemic – or else admit that they are making this crisis worse.”

Opioid commission member: Our work is a ‘sham’

CNN // Wayne Drash and Nadia Kounang // January 23, 2018

The Republican-led Congress has turned the work of the president’s opioid commission into a “charade” and a “sham,” a member of the panel told CNN. “Everyone is willing to tolerate the intolerable — and not do anything about it,” said former Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who was one of six members appointed to the bipartisan commission in March. “I’m as cynical as I’ve ever been about this stuff.”

Trump has had a year to confront the opioid epidemic. He’s done almost nothing.

Vox // German Lopez //  Jan 23, 2018, 8:00am

If you listen to President Donald Trump’s words about the opioid epidemic, he seems to understand it’s an emergency. He declared it as one late in 2017. And he has repeatedly promised, as president and on the campaign trail, that he will do something about it — that he would “spend the money,” and that “the number of drug users and the addicted will start to tumble downward over a period of years.” If you look at Trump’s actions, well, it’s a very different story. There has been no move by Trump’s administration to actually spend more money on the opioid crisis. Key positions in the administration remain unfilled, even without nominees in the case of the White House’s drug czar office and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). And although Trump’s emergency declaration was renewed last week, it has led to essentially no action since it was first signed — no significant new resources, no major new initiatives.

Sean England
In News

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Changes Tune on Affordable Care Act in Election Year

Former Republican Presidential Candidate Sees Writing on the Wall for 2018

Washington, DC — In a sign of how dramatically the politics around health care have shifted, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, once an outspoken foe of the Affordable Care Act, has embraced a plan to strengthen the law in his state. The about-face comes soon after a national Protect Our Care poll showed that health care is a top priority for most voters going into the 2018 election cycle.

“Even ultra-conservative Scott Walker is finally facing facts: 2018 voters overwhelmingly prefer politicians who will work keep and improve the Affordable Care Act over candidates who support President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ unpopular sabotage-and-repeal agenda. Governor Walker should advise his Republican friends in Congress to face up to the writing on the wall and start supporting states’ efforts to improve the Affordable Care Act, instead of digging themselves a deeper hole by continuing to push partisan repeal bills and condone the Trump administration’s ongoing sabotage,” said Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse.

Walker, in Turnabout, Moves to Stabilize Insurance Market

AP // Scott Bauer

MADISON, Wis. — In a tack to the left in an election year, Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker announced Sunday that he wants a state law that would bar insurers from denying a person health coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

He also wants Wisconsin to join Minnesota, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska in obtaining a federal waiver to offer reinsurance, a move designed to lower premiums for people in the private insurance marketplace.

Walker said the steps are necessary because “Washington failed to act” on passing a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare” — in effect criticizing fellow Republicans who control Congress and the White House.

Democrats accused Walker of hypocrisy. He has been a consistent and vocal critic of the health care law, refused to participate in the federal marketplace and repeatedly advocated for the law’s repeal and replacement. He also previously suggested he might have Wisconsin opt out of the law’s pre-existing condition rules.

“Give me a break on this pivot,” Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz said. “The problem we’re trying to fix was self-inflicted by Governor Walker.”

By seeking a reinsurance waiver, Walker is taking a step to make the private marketplace in Wisconsin more stable and affordable for more than 200,000 people in it. He plans to use his State of the State speech on Wednesday to ask the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve the proposals this year, and said leaders are on board.

His ideas, including seeking a lifetime federal waiver for the state’s popular discount prescription drug program known as SeniorCare, have had bipartisan support in the past. Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach said he expected Democrats to largely support the measures.

“Obviously the governor’s done some polling and he’s finding out he’s on the wrong side of history on health insurance and health care,” Erpenbach said.

Walker has been embracing ideas originally championed in whole or in part by Democrats as he seeks a third term in November. Earlier this month he called for closing the state’s troubled juvenile prison, which Democrats have pushed for years. And last year, he gave public schools essentially the level of funding requested by state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, a Democrat running against him for governor.

Walker told reporters he’s simply “listening to people across the state. It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrat or Republican. I don’t think those are Democrat issues, those are Wisconsin issues. People care about them.”

He said his latest health plan addresses the concerns of people who buy insurance through their employers by guaranteeing that pre-existing conditions will be covered. Even though that’s currently federal law, Walker said it is important that the state guarantee it and provide peace of mind.

Last year, the state Assembly passed a bill that would have done just that. Walker called on the Senate to pass it in the coming weeks.

The state’s discount prescription drug program for those over age 65 has received a federal waiver since 2002. It serves 60,000 seniors a month. The waiver has been extended four times, most recently in 2015. Walker said a permanent waiver would give peace of mind to seniors who rely on the discounted medicine.

Erpenbach doubted such a waiver could be granted without a change in federal law.

Walker’s push to make SeniorCare permanent comes seven years after he proposed cutting membership by forcing enrollees to first sign up for Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage, with the state program only covering what the federal one did not.

That was rejected after a bipartisan outcry.

Walker’s other new federal waiver request to offer reinsurance addresses the roughly 200,000 people in Wisconsin who purchase health insurance on the private marketplace under the “Obamacare” law. Reinsurance, which has bipartisan support, basically sets up a pool of money for the government to cover the cost of insurers’ most expensive cases.

Walker estimated his plan would cost $200 million, with the federal government paying 75 percent. He said the state’s share would come from savings from the Medicaid program.

Walker said he expected the program to result in lower rate increases in 2019 and stabilize a market that recently lost several larger insurers including UnitedHealth and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. The state insurance office estimated that premium rates will increase an average of 36 percent this year.

Because of the loss of insurers, this year more than 75,000 people in Wisconsin had to change insurance companies and many of them were limited to one or two choices.

 

 

ashoup
In News

This Week in the War on Health Care — January 15-19, 2018

The week, as much of the focus in Washington shifted to DACA and negotiations in Congress over a continuing resolution, the Trump Administration continued its unprecedented assault on the American health care system.

While your attention was focused elsewhere, here’s a summary of what happened this week in sabotage:

ATTACKS ON MEDICAID

As the dust settled around the Trump HHS’s approval of Kentucky’s worst-in-the-nation Medicaid waiver, experts dug into the fundamental ways it signals an end to Medicaid’s legacy:

… and why we already know it won’t work, unless Governor Matt Bevin’s primary goal is to take away Kentuckians’ coverage (spoiler alert: it is):

As Margot Sanger-Katz notes: “Kentucky’s new Medicaid waiver will ask low-income people to jump over hurdles to keep their coverage. Evidence suggests that many will fail … Kentucky officials argue that the changes will give beneficiaries more dignity and promote personal responsibility. But they also estimate that around 100,000 fewer people will be enrolled in the program by the end of five years.”

Meanwhile, Republicans opened a new front in their war on Medicaid. Yesterday, Senator Ron Johnson held a sham hearing to try to smear Medicaid by blaming it for the opioid crisis — when in fact Medicaid is one of our most important tools to curb the epidemic. Fortunately, few were fooled:

  • Newsweek: “The Republican argument is flawed because the Medicaid expansion began in 2014, and opioid addiction was declared an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2011.”
  • Washington Post: “While conservatives have noted that overdose deaths are much higher among people inside the program than those outside it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they’ve not been able to prove Medicaid actually leads to opioid abuse.”
  • Los Angeles Times: “The Republican campaign against Medicaid could only make the opioid crisis worse. That’s because Medicaid pays for a huge proportion of opioid treatments, covering fully one-third of those with addiction problems … Johnson and his fellow Republicans in Congress seem determined to impose cuts on the program, even though the benefits it renders are crystal-clear. Wednesday’s hearing did achieve one benefit, for all that: It showed how threadbare their arguments are.”

ATTACKS ON EMPLOYER COVERAGE

On Monday, New York Times reported that the GOP’s next health care sabotage scheme will remove the requirement that employers of over 50 workers offer health coverage for their employees. Such a move could yank care away from millions more Americans, while increasing government spending:

“The Affordable Care Act was built on a framework of shared responsibility … If you get rid of the employer mandate, you will see people lose coverage from their employers.”

ATTACKS ON CRITICAL HEALTH PROGRAMS

Congressional Republicans released a Continuing Resolution proposal that continues their heartless strategy of using children’s health insurance as a bargaining chip. Their bill also attempts to delay Affordable Care Act taxation provisions that benefit big corporations, while ignoring critical expired programs that support essential providers. These include community health centers and hospitals that serve lower-income communities. Some of these critical provider systems are facing threats of closure due to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the Republican Congress..

As Politico reported, GOP Congressional leaders considered including the badly-needed funding – then decided not to:

Knowing the vote is close, Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other GOP leaders debated on Wednesday morning whether to add more provisions to the package, such as funding for community health centers. In the end, they decided to move ahead with the package as is.

As this week’s CR brinksmanship showed, Republicans continue to prioritize partisan politics over their constituents’ health care.

SABOTAGE TAKES A TOLL

On Tuesday, Gallup found that America’s uninsured rate jumped during Trump’s first year in office for the first time in a decade, causing 3.2 million Americans to lose their care.

If this week’s news is any indication, that number could climb as the Republican war on health care continues into 2018.

ashoup
In News, Stories

Health Care As A Defining Issue Of 2018

To: Interested Parties

From: Geoffery Garin

Subject: Health Care As A Defining Issue Of 2018

Date: January 12,  2018

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

Our newly completed survey among a representative national cross section of voters clearly shows that healthcare will be a defining issue in the 2018 elections and the healthcare policies of President Trump and the Republican Congress will be a very significant liability for GOP candidates.

These findings are based on 1,000 interviews nationwide conducted January 3 to 7, 2018, among a sample of 2016 voters, 49% of whom say they voted for Hillary Clinton and 46% of whom say they voted for President Trump.

1. Healthcare far exceeds any other issue as an important driver of voting preferences, with over half of all voters identifying healthcare as one of their top priorities in the 2018 congressional elections.

Fully 54% choose healthcare as one of the two issues that will be the most important to them in deciding how to vote for Congress, compared with 29% for the economy, 28% for taxes, 18% for immigration, 18% for education, 17% for government spending, 12% for national defense, and 11% for terrorism.

These results highlight the durability of healthcare as a powerful concern for voters, even when healthcare legislation is not front and center in the news. In our two previous readings in May 2017 and August 2017, 55% and 57% respectively selected healthcare as one of their top two issues.

Healthcare is the most frequently cited priority among Democrats (68%), independents (54%), and Republicans (38%). It is particularly important to African-American voters (66%) and to white women voters, whether they are college graduates (62%) or non-college graduates (59%).

2. Along with the tax bill, healthcare policies are a top-of-mind reason that many voters disapprove of the job Republicans are doing as the majority party in Congress. Indeed, there is widespread disapproval of Republicans in Congress with regard to their handling of healthcare, even among many rank-and-file Republican voters.

Even after the passage of the tax bill, fully 61% of voters disapprove of the job Republicans are doing as the majority party in Congress. When those who disapprove are asked to volunteer why, they most frequently mention Republican tax policies (43%), Republican healthcare policies (36%), and the Republicans’ general lack of concern for average Americans (11%).

While disapproval for the Republicans’ overall performance is high, disapproval for the GOP’s performance on healthcare is even higher (72%). Negative opinions about the way Republicans in Congress have handled healthcare cross party lines, with 93% of Democrats, 78% of independents, and 45% of rank-and-file Republicans expressing disapproval.

3. Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act are unpopular with voters and a political drag on them in this election year. Democrats increase their electoral advantage when they highlight their position of making improvements in the ACA while keeping what works. And it is clear that continued GOP efforts to repeal the ACA will exacerbate their political problems, given that two-thirds of voters agree on this issue that, “enough is enough.”

Just 35% of voters say they have a favorable opinion of the bills proposed by Republicans in Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while 52% have an unfavorable opinion of them. By 47% to 38%, voters say they would be less likely to reelect their members of Congress if they voted for the bills by President Trump and Republicans in Congress to repeal and replace the ACA. Voters who are undecided on how to vote for Congress this year say by 12 points that they would be less likely to reelect someone who voted for repeal and replace.

Additionally, the poll results indicate that there is widespread frustration with Republicans’ repetitive efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Fully 68% of voters agree with this statement: “Enough is enough—President Trump and the Republicans in Congress should stop trying to repeal and undermine the Affordable Care Act and start working across party lines on commonsense solutions that build on the current law.” Fifty-three percent (53%) strongly agree. There has been a 10-point increase in the share of voters who see President Trump as actively trying to make the Affordable Care Act fail (to 52%, with 28% saying he is not trying to make it fail and 20% not sure). By 55% to 45%, voters say problems with the Affordable Care Act are occurring mainly because Trump and Republicans in Congress are trying to sabotage the law rather than because it is a bad law.

As other polls have shown, Democrats head into the 2018 midterm elections with a clear advantage. In this poll, among all voters who cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election, Democrats have a seven-point margin (44% Democrat, 37% Republican) in a generic trial heat. The Democrats’ true advantage likely will be much greater, given that 75% of Clinton voters say they are certain to vote in 2018, compared with just 60% of Trump voters.

An election that focuses on healthcare and GOP repeal efforts would widen the Democrats’ margin. When given a choice between a Democrat who wants to keep what works in the Affordable Care Act and make improvements in it and a Republican who wants to repeal and replace Obamacare, voters prefer the Democrat by 18 points (59% to 41%). Those who are undecided in the generic trial heat prefer the Democrat in this
match-up by 68% to 32%.

4. The Republicans have a long list of severe vulnerabilities on healthcare that go beyond their repeated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and their healthcare policies on many fronts create very major concerns among large majorities of voters. These are the highest testing criticisms of the healthcare policies of President Trump and the Republicans in Congress.

These are the highest testing criticisms of the healthcare policies of President Trump and the Republicans in Congress.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of women voters voice very major concerns about GOP policies that would allow insurance companies to charge women more than men for their health insurance. Other Trump policies are widely rejected by voters. The reaction is especially negative, for example, when voters are informed that, “the Trump administration is allowing insurance companies to sell plans that do not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act because they do not have to cover essential health benefits such as cancer treatments and maternity care and can deny coverage altogether for preexisting conditions.” Three quarters of all voters disapprove of this policy, including 53% who strongly disapprove.

5. The litany of bad Republican policies on healthcare ladders up to a very damaging overarching narrative for the GOP. Indeed, a large majority agree that the sum of the Trump-GOP policies shows that there is a “Republican war on healthcare.” Just as important, the healthcare issue focuses attention on two dominant weaknesses for the Republicans—their reputation for catering to special interests, and their support for a tax bill that gave huge cuts to the wealthy and large corporations.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of voters agree with the following statement, including 51% who strongly agree: “When you add it all up—taking away coverage from millions of people, weakening protections for people with preexisting conditions, allowing insurance companies to charge more if you are older or a woman, and making big cuts to Medicare and Medicaid—there is a Republican war on healthcare today.” Even 48% of Trump voters agree that there is a Republican war on healthcare.

The notion of a Republican war on healthcare is credible to voters because it speaks to two other important conclusions voters have about Republicans:

  • They take huge amounts of campaign funding from the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry, and they are catering to the special interests that give them money (77% say this is believable, including 51% who say it is very believable).

  • They want to cut funding for healthcare in order to pay for the huge tax cuts they passed for the wealthy and large corporations (72% say this is believable, including 48% who say it is very believable).

While voters also believe that Republicans in Congress are motivated by a desire to undo everything that President Obama did while he was in office, even more concerning to them are the GOP’s focus on cutting taxes for the wealthy and the large corporations and its desire to cater to the special interests that fund their campaigns.

ashoup
In News, Stories

The Plot Against Americans: Bombshell Report Reveals Trump Admin’s Master Strategy to Rip Apart Our Health Care System

WASHINGTON, DC – After Politico released a late-night bombshell report revealing that the Trump Administration left a paper trail of their plans to sabotage health care, Protect Our Care Campaign Chairman Leslie Dach released the following statement:

“President Trump left behind a smoking gun in this newly revealed document, and now Americans can see beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Republican plot to sabotage our care started on Day One of this Administration. This newly revealed document confirms what we knew all along – Republicans never had any plan to improve health care for Americans; they always intended to rip apart affordable coverage and vital insurance protections root and branch. After today, President Trump and Congressional Republicans can no longer deny the truth: from the outset, they were hell-bent on waging a spiteful war against Americans’ health care.”

Sean England
In News

EXPOSED: Three GOPers Admit Real Anti-Health Care Agenda in Tax Plan

No matter how hard Republicans try to pretend like this tax bill isn’t an assault on health care for middle class families, the truth is becoming clearer by the day.

While a top plan author confirmed his plan to include a sneaky health care repeal in the tax plan, a top Trump adviser confirmed that the intention of this sneaky health care repeal is to dismantle the Affordable Care Act altogether. And report after report has shown Republicans intend to use the ballooning deficit this tax bill creates to go after Medicare.

Trump Advisor Stephen Moore: “And getting rid of the mandate is to eventually dismantle Obamacare”

CNBC: “Top House tax writer Brady expects final tax bill to repeal Obamacare individual mandate”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy: “Then, you’ve got to look at the entitlements.”

“Any Republican who backs this tax plan is backing a health care repeal that rips apart health care for 13 million Americans, forces premiums to go up 10% and lays the foundation for Medicare cuts,” said Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse “What is it with Republicans and this political suicide they insist on committing on health care? Their repeal bills are among the most unpopular legalization ever, they lost across the country on the issue of health care in November and all signs point to more political pain for them down the road. If they insist on repealing health care to pay for tax breaks for the well-to-do and then using it as a precursor to ravage American health care even further, they can expect to be held accountable.”

Sean England
In News

Support for ACA Continues to Rise – Over 2/3 of Voters Want ACA Kept and Fixed, Not Repealed; Voters Oppose Tax Bill Killing ACA Mandate

From: Jim Williams, Public Policy Polling

To: Interested Parties

Subject: Support for ACA Continues to Rise – Over 2/3 of Voters Want ACA Kept and Fixed, Not Repealed; Voters Oppose Tax Bill Killing ACA Mandate    

Date: December 14, 2017

A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that approval of the Affordable Care Act continues to rise among voters, and nearly 7 in 10 want Congress to keep what works about the ACA and fix what doesn’t rather than repeal it and start over with a new healthcare law. Further, only 29% of voters say they support the Republican tax bill currently being debated in Congress after learning it includes a health care repeal that removes the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

Key findings from the survey include:

  • Voter approval of the Affordable Care Act continues to rise. 57% say they approval of the law compared 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.
  • Voters continue to strongly think that Congress should keep what works about the ACA and fix what doesn’t rather than repeal it and start over with a new healthcare law – voters say so by a 68/30 margin in this poll expanding to 71/26 among independents. That 38 point advantage is up from a 27 point advantage of 60/33 from an October poll done for Save My Care.
  • Just 29% of voters say they support the Republican tax bill currently being debated in Congress after learning it removes the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

PPP surveyed 585 registered voters nationally from December 12-13, 2017.  The margin of error is +/- 4.1%. This poll was conducted using automated telephone interviews for Protect Our Care.

Sean England
In Uncategorized

GOP Tax Bill Will Raise Costs for Middle-Class Families And Could Result In 15 Million Fewer People…

Having repeatedly failed to repeal health care, President Trump and Republicans in Congress want to use their tax cut bill to try again. Republicans proposed paying for their huge tax cut for the rich in part by eliminating a tax deduction for people with high medical costs. In addition, there are talks of repealing the individual responsibility provision in the Affordable Care Act as another way to pay for these tax cuts. Repealing these two provisions would adversely impact people who need health care the most and raise costs on everyone. Here is the impact of the GOP’s latest effort to repeal health care:

  • 15 million more uninsured. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing the individual responsibility provision would result in 15 million more people uninsured.
  • 20 percent higher premiums. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated repealing the individual responsibility provision would raise premiums 20 percent next year.
  • Higher costs for seniors in long-term care. The House GOP bill eliminates a tax deduction for people with costly health care bills, including long-term care.
  • Higher costs for people with pre-existing conditions. Repealing the individual responsibility provision would lead to the so-called “death spiral” in the individual market. In other words, younger and healthier people would not sign up for coverage, making coverage more expensive for older and sicker people.
protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on Reports Trump is Canceling CSR Payments

In response to news reports tonight that the Trump administration plans to cancel funding the cost-sharing-reduction payments — a part of the Affordable Care Act — Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse made the following statement.

“The President of the United States is now running a daily campaign to sabotage the health care of the American people. Nonpartisan analysts say canceling these payments means making people pay 20% higher premiums.

“The Trump administration and every Republican in Congress who lets him do this, is now responsible for every rate hike people see for the foreseeable future. They broke it, they own it.”

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!

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