Sen. Bill Cassidy called Medicaid “broken” during an interview about Republican plans to reform the program as part of repealing Obamacare.
The Louisiana Republican and physician told the Washington Examiner’s weekly “Examining Politics” podcast about his party’s plans for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
Doing so will require a reworking of Medicaid, the government-financed health insurance program for the poor that was expanded under Obamacare to include middle-class Americans.
Even many Republican governors who declined to set up a state insurance exchange as called for under President Obama’s signature healthcare law accepted Medicaid expansion and the federal money that came with it.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, was among them, albeit with conservative reforms to his state’s version of the expansion.
The Republican replacement for Obamacare envisioned by Cassidy would enable governors who want to keep the Medicaid expansion to do so.
In part, that might happen through federal block grants that would allow states to design Medicaid programs to meet their own specifications, with minimal interference from Washington.
“Medicaid is a broken program,” Cassidy said on the Examiner podcast. “I worked in a hospital for the uninsured and saw both the uninsured and Medicaid. Begs the question: Why if somebody has Medicaid are they being seen in a hospital for the uninsured? Because Medicaid pays physicians so poorly, below their cost, that typically specialists do not see Medicaid patients. So I say that Medicaid is the illusion of coverage without the power of access.”
“All this to say, it is a program ripe for reform,” Cassidy added.
More than six years after Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, Republicans have the political wherewithal to repeal the statute. President-elect Trump is making it a priority and Republicans have the votes in the House and Senate to deliver.
Still, the process is likely to be complicated and could take several months, as lawmaker move proposals through key committees and later negotiate differences between the House and Senate versions, and whatever the White House wants.
Cassidy expressed confidence that the replacement proposals offered by Republicans next year would appeal to voters and smooth the legislative process, although he conceded: “You have some imponderables.”
Get “Examining Politics” on iTunes and at Podcast One.
