Attendees: Chuck Bensonhaver, Barbara Burgess, Inger Fyfe, Mary Hill, Isabel Kottak, Jan McBride, Eileen and Gary Rice, Diane Widdus, and Pam Madaio, guest and chair of Women Health Committee
Inger reviewed webinar from Center on Budget and Reconciliation which reviewed current understanding of Senate bill which is being crafted by a male only panel behind closed doors. This appears to be AHCA lite, including 80% of House bill and resulting in 23 billion people with no insurance by 2026. It still allows states to rescind requirement for coverage of pre-existing health problems, phases out Medicaid but more gradually and takes longer for the cap to be invoked. This will have a huge impact on the opioid problem (In SC in 2015, 565 people died from opioid vs 637 from traffic accidents), on rural areas and on seniors.
Barbara discussed the problem for the insurers that they cannot afford to stay in the market with insufficient financial support for coverage of the very ill poor. Jan discussed the difficulty of hospitals having to care for patients who appear at their doors with no coverage, especially very expensive care such as ER and neonatal care. They are currently having to transfer some costs to insured patients but are at least getting some federal reimbursement because of Obamacare; when this decreases, they will be in a major crunch. Chuck reintroduced the idea of getting improved media coverage such as a letter to the editor of the Post and Courier with the signatures of the SIAN group. He also brought a NY Times editorial suggesting that there is a solution to fixing the GOP bill by improving the individual insurance coverage and applying a variable tax credit for those who have financial need rather than a universal credit.
We discussed possible actions with everyone participating. We discussed the problem of having Senators that appear unresponsive to our health concerns. We also discussed the need for public information about the GOP plan prior to its being released and in particular waiting until there is a CBO analysis. Mary suggested that we needed to lobby more effectively and Pam suggested following the lessons of Indivisible.
Plan:
Submit Action Plan to SIAN website and members. Encourage everyone to contact Senators Graham and Scott and ask if they will support a bill which denies coverage to 23 million people, cuts Medicaid programs and places sever caps on coverage for many groups including the older population. Ask that they instead of replace, improve the current ACA and stabilize the insurance market.
Barbara will compose letter to the editor.
Mary will learn about lobbying techniques to educate the rest of us
We will meet again in 3-4 weeks, date TBD
Mary will learn about lobbying techniques to educate the rest of us
We will meet again in 3-4 weeks, date TBD
SIAN Contact: Inger Fyfe
SIAN email: seaislandsactionnetwork@gmail.com
Sea Islands Action Network 