EVER since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, the future of American health care has become a central issue that has left millions of Americans uncertain of their health coverage.
One of the president’s campaign promises involved the repealing and replacing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, which he has consistently labeled a “disaster.” He also promised to drastically cut Medicaid, a program that serves nearly 75 million Americans.
So far, congressional Republicans have made several attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare, but each iteration of the GOP bill has not made it past both houses of Congress.
Each of those bills, including the House’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) and the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (and its scaled back “skinny repeal” version), called for similar things: dismantle Obamacare effective immediately, slash government funding to Medicaid and scale back federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
And they would all have similar effects: tens of millions of people would be kicked off health insurance, public health programs would slowly dwindle and non-profit health clinics would see dramatic cuts in funding and an erosion in resources.
Americans have been divided on the issue of repealing or saving Obamacare, but a recent poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that about 78 percent of Americans (roughly 8 out of 10) say that the president should try to make Obamacare work.
Despite Republicans’ failure to get their answer to Obamacare passed, health care professionals in California remain active in ensuring that Obamacare remains intact.
Health care outlook for California
Health care experts in California are especially concerned with the direction of health coverage amid the uncertainty brewing in Washington. During a press call hosted by New America Media, several health care advocates shed light on the severity of not having a clear path.
“While we are relieved that the proposals have stalled for the moment, we know the threat continues and we are still very much engaged in this federal fight,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of consumer health advocacy coalition Health Access.
Wright indicated that the proposed cuts to Medicaid and the dismantling of Covered California (California’s official health care exchange) would leave 6 million Californians without insurance. It would also disproportionately affect communities of color, who rely on Medicaid and Covered California.
As a way to ensure that millions of Californians keep their health care, Wright proposed that, rather than get rid of Obamacare, lawmakers should push to keep the current system and build on it.
Moreover, Californians have a duty to vote for congressional representatives who do not support the cuts to Medicaid or the removal of Obamacare.
“We’re not looking just to maintain current health care system, but to make improvements,” Wright offered. “We need improvements in the way of extended care to immigrant children, approval to extend Medicaid to young adults regardless of citizenship status, getting better transparency over prescription drug process…if we could maintain that, and not have these egregious cuts, we can focus on steps moving forward and ways to improve on the current system.”
The fight for health care has mounted for months, but more than ever, health care advocates are concerned that a deal won’t be made before the federal budget deadline on September 30.
If Congress has not reached an agreement on a spending package by that date, the government will face another shutdown.
The spending package includes all areas of the law, but reaching a deal on health care is the country’s most crucial issue that would have a direct effect on millions of Americans, especially families and children.
Approximately 5.7 million children in California are enrolled in Medi-Cal, Covered California and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), children’s health program under Medicaid; and, 3 out of 4 children under these programs are children of color.
Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children’s Partnership, said that ensuring that children and their families receive affordable, quality health coverage is significant.
According to Alvarez, children who receive coverage are more likely to succeed in education and, as adults, will become less reliant on safety net programs.
“We need to keep Medicaid and CHIP strong so every child has a chance to receive health care and lead successful lives,” Alvarez said, adding that children are the largest group of those covered under Medicaid.
Health care clinics across the nation would also be affected by the drastic cuts proposed by congressional Republicans. Health clinics, which are nonprofit community centers that serve 1 out of 7 Californians, are also up for federal funding renewal.
Ramifications
Should the government fail to make a decision for the federal spending package, health clinics would receive a huge blow, according to Andie Patterson, director of Government Affairs at California Primary Care Association.
Some of the consequences include the 28,000 health center shutdowns, 51,000 staff layoffs and 900,000 patients without care. Patterson said that before Obamacare, a majority patients at health clinics were uninsured, but with the expansion of Medicaid under the Obama administration, more than 1.3 million (57 percent of all health clinic patients) are now covered.
“Any threats to Medicaid absolutely undermine the foundation of health centers, fundamentally disrupts health centers and patients’ access to care,” Patterson said.
Patterson also spoke about the importance of ensuring that the federal funding of Planned Parenthood remained intact.
Each version of the GOP’s answer to Obamacare included the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s most prominent public resource for sexual and reproductive health, a decision mainly divided by party lines.
There are 115 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state that serve more than 800,000 patients.
As a representative of health clinics, Patterson said that funding diverted from
Planned Parenthood to health centers would not add up and would be a “lose-lose” situation for patients and health clinic staff.
“Patients deserve a choice. Reproductive choices and services from Planned Parenthood are essential to the health care system in California,” Patterson asserted. “It is impossible to think that health clinics could absorb patients from Planned Parenthood because the services they provide are not offered in clinics. It would mean dismantling a major reproductive health source for men and women.”
As a response to the possible collapse of the health insurance market, the Senate health committee will hold hearings on a bipartisan health bill in September before the federal spending package deadline.
Earlier this month Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) assured Americans that the deal will bypass the contention and delay caused by partisan politics.
“If your house is on fire, you want to put out that fire, and the fire, in this case, is the individual health insurance market. Both Republicans and Democrats agree on this,” he said in a statement. “Unless we act, many of them may not have policies available to buy in 2018 because insurance companies will pull out of collapsing markets.” (Klarize Medenilla/AJ Press)
