Obamacare Hurting Hospitals | Dems Getting On Boards TPA While Others Object to Bill

Elizabeth Warren answers no to Obama’s Fast Track.
Editorial Cartoon by AF Branco

Today in Washington, D.C. - May 14, 2015
The House reconvened at 10 AM today.
Bill being considered today:
H.R. 2297 — "To prevent Hezbollah and associated entities from gaining access to international financial and other institutions, and for other purposes."
H.R. 2252 — "To clarify the effective date of certain provisions of the Border Patrol Agent Pay Reform Act of 2014, and for other purposes."
H.R. 1735 — "To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities of the Department of Defense and for military construction, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes."
Senate amendments to H.R. 1191- Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.

Yesterday the House passed:
H.R. 36 (242-184) — "To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect pain-capable unborn children, and for other purposes."
H.R. 2048 (338-88) — "To reform the authorities of the Federal Government to require the production of certain business records, conduct electronic surveillance, use pen registers and trap and trace devices, and use other forms of information gathering for foreign intelligence, counterterrorism, and criminal purposes, and for other purposes."

The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM today. Following 30 minutes of morning business, the Senate began consideration of H.R. 1295, the vehicle for S. 1267, a reauthorization of trade preferences for African countries and many others, and H.R. 644, the vehicle for S. 1269, a customs bill that includes language treating currency manipulation as an unfair trade practice subject to retaliatory tariffs.

At noon, the Senate voted 97-1 to pass H.R. 195, as amended with the text of S. 1267 and 78-20 to pass H.R. 644, as amended with the text of S. 1269.

At 2 PM, the Senate will vote again on cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 1314, the vehicle for the Trade Promotion Authority bill.

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting the Senate for proceeding to legislation granting President Obama trade promotion authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership:"Americans for Limited Government has always believed that giving President Obama fast track trade authority will be decided by the House of Representatives. The fact that it has taken months for the Senate to begin this debate shows the deep political concerns in the Republican Party on this issue. This opposition is even more apparent in the House, and as the issue heats up on the presidential campaign trail, five Presidential aspirants have already come out opposed including: Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Rand Paul, and Mike Huckabee. Additionally, Representative Jeff Duncan's just released opposition to fast track is just one more domino to fall that blocks a pathway to passage in the House.

"In the meantime, without enforceable currency provisions in the trade authority itself, these votes risk Senate Republican seats in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to name just a few, putting the Senate majority in real jeopardy in 2016. Rather than continuing down this politically ruinous course, Republican leaders should promote solutions that unite the Party, instead of those that deepen the divide between the big business wing and the voters Republicans need to win."Democrats now regularly pronounce Obamacare to be a “success” and like to imply that criticism of this unpopular law is out of bounds. But the reality is that the expensive, byzantine pile of regulations and mandates Democrats imposed on the American health care system continues to create problems all across the country.

Recently, USA Today reported, “While Kentucky has gained national prominence as the only Southern state to fully embrace Obamacare, its hospitals say the law has left them facing billions of dollars in cuts and forced them to lay off staff, shut down services and worry for their financial health and, in some cases, survival.

“The Kentucky Hospital Association outlined its concerns in a report released Friday called ‘Code Blue,’ saying payment cuts to hospitals are expected to reach nearly $7 billion through 2024. ‘Kentucky hospitals will lose more money under the Affordable Care Act than they gain in revenue from expanded coverage,’ it said, experiencing a net loss of $1 billion by 2020. . . .

“Hospitals are suffering a net loss, officials said, partly because about three-quarters of newly-insured Kentuckians signed up for Medicaid, which reimburses hospitals less than it costs to treat patients. . . .

“Hospital officials acknowledged that some of the issues, such as low reimbursements from government insurance, pre-dated health reform, but have become worse since it went into effect. ‘There's no question it's been accelerated under the ACA,’ said Dennis Johnson, president and CEO of Hardin Memorial Health in Elizabethtown, Ky. . . .

“The changing way patients get coverage under Obamacare also hurts hospitals, the report says. About one in five hospital patients who recently signed up for Medicaid previously had private health insurance, which reimbursed at higher rates, officials said. Meanwhile, many patients with job-based private insurance, and plans purchased on the state exchange, face high deductibles and co-pays. When they can't pay their bills, a hospital's bad debt grows. This pushes up uncompensated care, even as charity care to the uninsured drops. Altogether, the report says, rising bad debt and low government reimbursements counter any gains from increased coverage. . . .

“More than four in 10 hospitals reported service reductions, such as closing a sleep lab, a wound care clinic and a surgery department. And two Kentucky hospitals have recently reported they've had to close their doors for good. Rural hospitals have suffered most; a recent state audit showed that 68% of Kentucky's rural hospitals scored below the national average on a measure of financial strength.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke about Kentucky’s troubles with Obamacare on the Senate floor this morning.

“[W]e all know that Obamacare is a law filled with broken promises,” he said. We all keep seeing reminders of how it fails too many of the same people we were told it would help. And in Kentucky, we’re seeing how hospitals and their patients are feeling the negative effects of this partisan law. That’s particularly true in rural areas of my state.

“A recent report showed that Obamacare’s multi-billion dollar attack on hospitals in Kentucky is expected to result in a net loss of $1 billion over the next few years. Let me repeat that, a net loss of $1 billion. These hospitals are expected to lose more money under Obamacare than they’re expected to gain in new revenue from expanded coverage. And, largely due to Obamacare, these losses are forcing Kentucky hospitals to cut jobs, reduce or freeze wages, and — in some instances — even close altogether. . . .

“[D]espite promises that greater access to coverage would decrease visits to the emergency room and the cost associated with those visits, the vast majority of emergency room doctors now say they've actually experienced a ‘surge’ in patients visiting the ER since Obamacare came into effect. In fact, a recent survey reported that thousands of ER doctors have actually seen an increase in emergency room visits since the start of last year.

“One physician from Lexington was quoted as saying he’d seen ‘a huge backlog in the ER because the volume has increased.’ He went on to say that ER volume rose by almost a fifth in the first few months of this year, which is nearly double what he saw last year. There are a lot of reasons for these increases but, as one ER physician put it, ‘visits are going up despite the ACA, and in a lot of cases because of it.’ . . . .

“Given Obamacare’s most famous broken promise about Americans being able to keep the health plans they liked, it’s easy to see how a person who had access to good insurance and quality care before Obamacare would find himself or herself forced onto Medicaid and into the emergency room today. A recent report found that among certain hospitals in Kentucky, as many as one in five individuals covered by Medicaid had previously had private health insurance.

“So unfortunately, it wasn't hard to see this coming. Many of us warned about it. We warned that providing supposed health coverage, without actually giving someone access to health care, is really just a hollow promise. The same could be said of warnings regarding the impact Obamacare’s deep Medicare cuts would have on many of our hospitals. I wish the politicians who rammed Obamacare through over the objections of the American people had heeded these warnings.”

Of course, Kentucky isn't the only state facing problems created by Obamacare. In California, the state Obamacare exchange continues to struggle. According to the Los Angeles Times, “After using most of $1 billion in federal start-up money, California's Obamacare exchange is preparing to go on a diet. That financial reality is reflected in Covered California's proposed budget, released Wednesday, as well as a reduced forecast calling for 2016 enrollment of fewer than 1.5 million people.

“The recalibration comes after tepid enrollment growth for California during the second year of the Affordable Care Act. The state ended open enrollment in February with 1.4 million people signed up, far short of its goal of 1.7 million. A number of factors contributed to the shortfall, but health policy experts said that some uninsured folks still find health insurance unaffordable despite the health law's premium subsidies.”

The LA Times notes some of the other problems the California exchange is wrestling with. “Many consumers have complained about long wait times, erroneous notices and other enrollment glitches with Covered California. . . . One of the biggest changes in the budget blueprint is a more gradual increase in projected enrollment compared with previous state estimates. Covered California projects 1.48 million people enrolled and paying on their premiums next year. It wants to reach nearly 2 million by 2019. The state made little progress this year. California was one of the worst-performing states, with 1% net enrollment growth, according to a recent analysis by consulting firm Avalere Health. . . . Covered California did sign up nearly 500,000 new enrollees during the second wave of the health law. But it also lost a significant number of customers for a variety of reasons. It retained 65% of the 1.4 million people who originally signed up during the first open enrollment, which ended in April 2014, according to Avalere. Many consumers dropped out right away because they failed to pay their initial premium for coverage to take effect.”

As Leader McConnell concluded, “[T]his is just one more reminder why Obamacare is bad for Kentucky, why it’s bad for the Middle Class, and why it’s bad for our country. . . . We owe the American people more than Obamacare’s broken promises, we owe them real health reform that lowers costs and increases choice.”

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