Colorado Springs — Groups backed by Charles and David Koch warned here on Saturday that Medicaid expansion under Obamacare has had disastrous healthcare consequences for millions of people around the country, and said the failure of congressional legislation to tackle the problem remains a top concern of theirs.
“Medicaid expansion is a big piece of it, because overall what we’ve seen is it’s crowded out care for those that are truly the most vulnerable, and added able-boded individuals to that,” Freedom Partners executive vice president James Davis told reporters when asked what most worries them about the Senate bill.
Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, who met Friday with Vice President Mike Pence, agreed that Medicaid expansion under Obamacare has flooded an already failing system with more people who won’t be able to get quality care.
“We’ve taken Medicare to more than 70 million folks,” Phillips said. “It was a struggling, frankly failing federal program before this dramatic expansion.”
“The wait times for folks on Medicaid have gone up, and especially when they’re trying to get in to see a specialist,” he said. “It’s terrible what happened here.”
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill to pare back Obamacare would phase out funding for expanded Medicaid access over time. But Phillips said that’s a small-ball approach at a time when the government needs to “go big” to solve the problem.
“To simply say we’re going to do maybe a slight nip and tuck to a program that because of Obamacare has added millions of those people is frankly immoral,” he said. “It’s not right to do that.”
And while supporters of Obamacare say it let more people get coverage, Phillips said that coverage is becoming worthless.
“When your deductible is over $2,000 for an Obamacare policy and you make $35,000 or $37,000 a year, it’s insurance in name only,” he said. “Basically, you have a catastrophic policy, because that’s the only time you’re going to a doctor with a deductible that high.”
Phillips, Davis and others here indicated that rather than attack the final congressional healthcare bill if it doesn’t solve that problem and others, they would simply continue to keep working to fix healthcare the way they think is best.
Phillips said the Koch network has been fighting for healthcare improvements ever since Obamacare was introduced in 2009, and said it may take another decade of fighting.
But they said they would continue to push for improvements to the bill as long as it’s being considered, in meetings like the one Pence attended Friday, and this weekends donor conference.
Brian Hooks, president of the Charles Koch Foundation, said there are more first-time donors to the conference this year than ever, and said the network of groups is bringing together more people who have a “common concern ” for the country.”
Several lawmakers will attend the weekend event, including six Senate Republicans: John Cornyn of Texas, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Mike Lee of Utah.
House lawmakers attending are Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Dave Brat of Virginia and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.
