In a brand new letter, 344 organizations urged the brand new Congress — which was sworn in on Jan. 3 — to guard and strengthen Medicaid.
The letter was addressed to Senate Majority Chief John Thune, Home Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries. Households USA, a healthcare shopper advocacy group, led the cost for the letter. Different organizations that signed the letter embody the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness, March of Dimes, UnidosUS and the Middle for Well being Legislation and Coverage Innovation.
It comes as a number of Republican legislative proposals purpose to tighten Medicaid by eliminating or considerably underfunding the ACA Medicaid enlargement, in line with the Middle on Finances and Coverage Priorities, a nonpartisan analysis and coverage institute. The proposals purpose to do that by restructuring and chopping federal funding for this system, or undermining long-standing protections for enrollees.
Within the letter, the organizations famous that Medicaid is a vital supply of well being and financial safety for 80 million Individuals, insures 38 million kids and covers 40% of births within the U.S.
“The significance of Medicaid can’t be overstated. … It’s the single most vital supply of monetary help that retains rural hospitals open to serve the well being wants of their communities,” the organizations acknowledged. “It ensures folks with disabilities can entry crucial house and community-based providers and safe significant job alternatives. It’s the largest payer of behavioral well being providers within the nation, offering important entry to psychological well being and substance use dysfunction care. And it helps working folks keep wholesome to allow them to afford to feed their households and ship their children to highschool.”
As well as, they declared that chopping Medicaid was not one thing Individuals requested for through the 2024 election cycle. Doing so would put prices on working class households and betray constituents, they argued.
“Proposals to cap funding, scale back the federal share of Medicaid spending, set up block grants, institute work reporting and neighborhood engagement necessities, reduce state income from supplier taxes or in any other case undermine the basic construction of the Medicaid program all have the identical impact,” the letter acknowledged. “If instituted, Individuals will lose entry to lifesaving providers, states will probably be strapped with huge funds holes, hospitals and clinics will lose revenues and be pressured to chop employees and reduce providers, and American households and employees will probably be unable to afford important care and get sicker — resulting in a loss in productiveness and the financial system struggling because of this.”
The organizations added that if the 119th Congress needs to decrease healthcare prices, “there are various well-vetted, commonsense and bipartisan proposals to deal with inefficiencies and inflated costs and eradicate waste from the well being care system.” In response to Households USA, these proposals embody closing authorized loopholes that permit drug corporations to extend drug prices, strengthening hospital and well being plan worth transparency and reforming doctor cost.
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