Massachusetts political leaders at the state and federal level and regional medical experts decried the U.S. House of Representatives vote to replace Obamacare Thursday.
The House voted 217-213 to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with the Republican-sponsored American Health Care Act.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who warned before the vote that the bill could lead to a “massive” loss of federal funds for Massachusetts, said he was disappointed by the vote.
“As the U.S. Senate takes up this bill, we will continue to advocate for the commonwealth’s priorities so that all residents have access to the health coverage they need,” Baker said in a statement released after the vote. “Maintaining flexibility through the Medicaid program is critical to the commonwealth’s ability to provide coverage for the needy and I urge Congress to reject this bill in its current form.”
Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s parent organization, Baystate Health, responded to the passage of the bill by siding with the opposition of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association.
MHA President Lynn Nicholas called the Republican replacement bill to Obamacare “ill-conceived.”
“Today’s passage of an amended version of the American Health Care Act threatens to severely damage the progress our state and country have made in health care access, affordability and delivery,” Nicholas said in her statement. “Most troubling, it will put health coverage in jeopardy for many Americans, particularly for older and sicker patients.”
The replacement bill will “result in significant funding implications for health coverage for thousands of Massachusetts low-income individuals and the providers that care for them” and a “diminution of funding to MassHealth as result of the AHCA bill would directly imperil the program and its future goals,” she said.
Meanwhile, in Congress, U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern, and Richard Neal, who represent Franklin County in the House, criticized the vote.
McGovern predicted the Republican-backed American Health Care Act, which would repeal the Affordable Care Act, will take health insurance away from millions of Americans, and cause health costs to increase for families across the country.
“Today, House Republicans turned their backs on millions of Americans by voting to pass Trumpcare and repeal the Affordable Care Act. This bill throws 24 million Americans off their health insurance, cuts Medicaid by $880 billion, and gives a huge tax cut to the richest people in our country,” McGovern said. “It cuts Medicare, it does away with essential health benefits like maternity care, and it also, I’m sad to say, takes away protections for people with pre-existing conditions. It is an outrage, an abomination, and we need to stop it.
“Health care ought to be a right in this country, not a privilege. We cannot allow this terrible excuse of a health care bill to become law. I’m going to stand with you and fight it every step of the way. We need to stop this,” he said.
Neal said, “Despite the absence of analysis from the Congressional Budget Office and without a single public hearing on this bill, Republicans followed through on seven years of threats to destroy the health care of millions of Americans by forcing them to pay more for worse coverage.
“Instead of working with Democrats to improve health care in this country, Republicans voted to remove key protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, take away health insurance from 24 million, shorten the life of Medicare, and impose an age tax on seniors — all to pay for a giant tax cut for the wealthy.
“This bill breaks nearly every promise that President Trump made to the American people on health care. And perhaps even worse, Republicans knowingly ignored the dire warnings of respected groups representing hospitals, patients, seniors and virtually the entire medical community and wrote this bill behind closed doors, cobbling together a bill just to get the votes to pass it and score political points — rather than with the goal of improving health care in this country.
“Every step of the way, Democrats have been willing to work with Republicans to strengthen our health care system, but Republicans chose to gamble on the health and well-being of millions of middle-class Americans.”
At the same time, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, “Trumpcare isn’t a health care bill. A bill that destroys health care for millions to shovel cash to the rich isn’t a health care bill.”
She added, “This is the same cruel bill that House Republicans tried to pass weeks ago. It still strips coverage from millions. Still guts Medicaid. Still strips funds away from states like Massachusetts that are battling the opioid crisis. The only thing that’s changed about Trumpcare in recent weeks is that they made the original plan even more brutal.
“This isn’t football. It’s not about scoring points. Trumpcare will devastate Americans’ health care. Families will go bankrupt. People will die. Disease, sickness and old age touch every family. Tragedy doesn’t ask who you voted for. Health care is a basic human right. We’ll fight as long and hard as we can to make that a reality for everyone in America.”
The bill would cost Massachusetts at least $1 billion and “probably more,” Gov. Baker told reporters.
“We’re certainly not the only state for whom this is an issue and I remain deeply concerned that this particular bill — and admittedly there are still facts to be learned about it, it’s not completely clear what every element is — would be a very difficult pill for the commonwealth to swallow,” he said at an event in South Boston. “My hope is that folks will basically put it away and come up with something else, because I certainly think there are plenty of things we can do to fix the Affordable Care Act.”
Baker noted the “fairly long, and some would say wonky and nerdy letters” that he’s written federal legislators about how he would prefer to see Congress go about changing the Affordable Care Act.
Though he spoke to reporters about 90 minutes before the House vote, the governor said he expects to work with other state executives and the Massachusetts delegation as the bill advances to the U.S. Senate.
“Remember, this is a long process. This is the House of Representatives, it still needs to move through the Senate. There are many Republicans, as well as Democrats, in the Senate who spoke out against the previous proposal that was put forth before the House that they didn’t vote on,” Baker said. “And we would continue to work with other governors and with our congressional delegation and others to try to make sure that in the end, whatever happens here, if something happens, it works for Massachusetts.”
Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts said, “House Republicans just voted to kick millions of people off of their health insurance and told women across the country that their health does not matter. By passing this bill, House Republicans are eliminating critical protections for people with pre-existing conditions … This effort to ‘defund’ Planned Parenthood would have a devastating impact on the millions of people who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers for birth control, cancer screenings and STD testing and treatment, and undermines the enormous progress we’ve made in improving women’s health care and decreasing the rates of unintended pregnancy. This legislation would also allow insurers to consider pregnancy to be a pre-existing condition and refuse to cover maternity and newborn care, and force new moms with Medicaid coverage back to work shortly after giving birth.”
Dr. Henry L. Dorkin, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, said, “None of the modifications made to the original legislation have mitigated the grievous harm that this bill would inflict on our patients — including the most vulnerable. In fact, when it comes to affordable, reliable health care coverage, the current version of the AHCA is actually worse than the original. The AHCA would lead to millions of Americans losing the coverage on which they depend, and it would result in insurance coverage for millions of others that is costly and unreliable. Insurance coverage is not meaningful if patients cannot access the care they need. Affordable coverage of patients with pre-existing conditions is essential for their lives and well-being — and for the sustainability of America’s health care system. The AHCA would skyrocket the costs of insurance for the millions of Americans who live with pre-existing conditions, and history has shown that high-risk pools are not an effective solution.”