The few changes to Senate health care bill (done again in secret) do nothing to make it less bad in general and especially bad for Alaska.
The bad idea to allow stripped-down plans will likely provide so much less with higher deductibles that the final cost could easily be much more, especially for those to whom fate deals a seriously bad hand. Further, stripped coverage will raise the cost of healthcare for those who want or need full ACA coverage. For the majority of those with conditions or who are aged or poor, the cost of health care will become unaffordable. The stripped-down provision and elimination of the individual mandate ignore what makes healthcare at all affordable: shared risk.
Reconciliation with the House Bill could halve any perceived positive adjustments and amendments to the Senate bill. No matter what, though, this bill will still overwhelm Alaska because both bills have the same deep cuts to Medicaid. These will cost Alaska jobs and tens of millions of Alaska state dollars to meet statutory requirements, and cost the health and well being of Alaska’s most vulnerable. Their health will diminish, and when they are ill, they will have no choice but to come to the place where health care is most expensive: the hospital emergency room. The cost in human terms will be cruel and high, and the high economic cost will be spread as before, to hospitals, cities, and the health care plans of others.
Alaska’s senators know all this and much more about the many things wrong with this ruthless bill. It doesn’t hurt to point out to them, though, that this bill does nothing to improve health care in Alaska, only hurts it deeply, imperils the recently accomplished Alaska insurance reinvestment, and makes Alaska’s financial crisis far worse.
I hope your readers will be inclined to urge our senators to vote no on this especially bad bill for Alaska.
Art Petersen
Juneau
Art Petersen is a Juneau resident and retired from UAS.