An assembly of groups representing a wide swath of physicians, hospitals, and healthcare plans issued a unified message Saturday expressing opposition to the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“While we sometimes disagree on important issues in health care, we are in total agreement that Americans deserve a stable healthcare market that provides access to high-quality care and affordable coverage for all. The Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill does not move us closer to that goal,” a joint statement from the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Hospital Association, Federation of American Hospitals, America’s Health Insurance Plans, and the BlueCross BlueShield Association.
Their message to lawmakers was clear: “The Senate should reject it.”
The, amendment authored by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Bill Cassidy, R-La., would overhaul the Affordable Care Act and remove individual and employer mandates required by former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. Under the plan, the money currently being allocated to Obamacare’s exchanges and Medicaid expansion would be given to the states through federal block grants.
In a defense offered Wednesday, Cassidy said that his legislation “absolutely” covers patients with pre-existing conditions, which has been a concern of many of the bill’s critics, including comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
The major healthcare groups disagree.
They warned that the legislation “will cause patients and consumers to lose important protections, as well as undermine safeguards for those with pre-existing conditions. Without these guaranteed protections, people with significant medical conditions can be charged much higher premiums and some may not be able to buy coverage at all.”
They also said they “agree” that the bill will make “dramatic cuts to Medicaid and a funding cliff in the future” that would put millions of patients at risk of losing their coverage. Possible destabilization effects on the individual insurance market also puts coverage in jeopardy, they warned.
Another concern to the groups is the timetables included in the legislation, which they deemed “not workable.”
“State and industry leaders will need to completely transform their individual insurance markets and Medicaid programs in little more than a year – an impossible task,” they wrote.
The Graham-Cassidy plan is expected to be brought to the floor next week. The Senate has until Sept. 30 to use the reconciliation tool that only requires 51 votes to repeal parts of Obamacare.
Some Republicans have already opposed the legislation, putting it’s future in jeopardy. Notably, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., rejected it, saying that he was concerned that it did not receive sufficient consideration through hearings and markups in the Senate and that he prefers a bipartisan approach. “I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal,” McCain said in a statement. “I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried.”
In an effort to salve concerns over the legislation, Senate Committee on Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has scheduled a hearing on the issue for Monday.
“Senators have expressed a strong desire to examine the details of the Graham-Cassidy proposal through a public hearing,” Hatch said in a statement on Saturday. “A hearing will allow members on both sides of the aisle to delve deeper into its policy and gain a better understanding of what the authors hope to achieve.”
The legislation also has the backing of the White House. President Trump declared at a rally in Alabama on Friday that “we still have a chance” to pass the Obamacare overhaul, despite McCain rejecting it. He also spent part of the day tweeting at Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in an effort to sway them towards a “yes” vote.
Both McCain and Murkowski voted against and helped to kill the last GOP Obamacare repeal effort over the summer.
Though the efforts of Hatch and Trump may help to sway on-the-fence Republicans, Democrats are not likely to support the effort, and the major healthcare groups said this is a concern because healthcare “is too important to get wrong.”
“Let’s take the time to get it right,” they wrote. “Let’s agree to find real, bipartisan solutions that make health care work for every American.”
