The Hospital Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) and other health organizations recently gained a victory after the U.S. Senate neglected to vote on the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ) plan that would replace the highly controversial Affordable Care Act (ACA), HAP reported on its website.
Several health care providers, advocates and consumers have spoken out against the effort. On Sept. 26, HAP joined with approximately 30 Pennsylvania health care organizations to send a letter to the Pennsylvania congressional delegation explaining why the GCHJ is problematic, the HAP posting said. The letter stated that the plan would “eliminate funding for premium tax credits, cost-sharing reduction payments, and enhanced federal matching payments for Medicaid expansion after 2019 ... impose a per capita cap, which would limit federal funding to a set amount per beneficiary, regardless of actual costs,” and enable states “to eliminate coverage of ‘essential health benefits,’ remove the ACA’s cap on out-of-pocket costs for enrollees and give insurers the ability to charge more for patients who are older and sicker," the HAP posting said.
The organizations suggested that in order to improve health care, the government needs to shift the focus to market stabilization policies.
The health care providers also sent a message to the Pennsylvania congressional delegation on Sept. 15 to inform them of what health care priorities should be going into the fall. Some of these priorities included protecting Medicaid, extending the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and supporting vulnerable patient populations, the posting said.
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