Among the CBO’s projected 22 million to 23 million Americans who might lose their health insurance because of cuts to Medicaid under the GOP’s two proposed health-care bills are persons living with disabilities.
By Madeleine Neal
When it comes to health care, some Iowans living with disabilities could face a cutback.
When U.S. Senate Republicans released their proposed alternative to the Affordable Care Act in June, significant cuts to Medicaid were at the forefront.
Medicaid — a shared federal and state health-insurance program offered to low-income Americans, some elderly, and many with disabilities — would be cut by nearly $772 billion in around a 10-year period under the Senate’s proposal. The House proposal would cut the program by approximately $834 billion.
According to the Content Management System Matrix, roughly 40 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid, and more than 10 million of those suffer from disabilities, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission said.
Those working in the disabilities-advocacy field are concerned that the bill could limit services.
Emmanuel Smith, a protection and advocacy for beneficiaries advocate at Disability Rights Iowa, said putting a cap on certain health-care services could be a threat to people with disabilities.
“Those services [such as Medicaid] are really, really important for empowering people with disabilities — to live the lives they want,” Smith said.
For him, denying services to those disabilities could cause isolation for some.
“Unfortunately, when you undermine those services, it really begins to push people with disabilities to the periphery of daily life, and I don’t think that’s in keeping with the kind of state that we want,” Smith said.
While Disability Rights Iowa is not politically affiliated, Smith said, Iowans should allow lawmakers to create a system to empower people with disabilities.
Some Iowa Democrats think the bill is detrimental to those people.
Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, said he will fight against the Senate’s health-care bill.
“The new [Congressional Budget Office] report reaffirms what many have feared — that the Senate health-care repeal plan will still rip health-care coverage from 22 million Americans. The bill also slashes $772 billion from Medicaid, which provides coverage to America’s most vulnerable, including seniors, children, people with disabilities, and the working poor,” Loebsack said in a statement. “It does all of this while giving the 400 highest income families a $33 billion tax break.”
Loebsack noted that, although the Obama-era Affordable Care Act needs improvement, the newest version of the GOP’s bill is just as mean and heartless as the House original.
“I will continue to fight to ensure Iowans get the health-care coverage they need and deserve,” he said.
Some Iowa Republicans, however, see the Senate’s bill as a means of flexibility for states.
In a statement released by the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the senator acknowledged that when it was enacted 52 years ago, Medicaid served the poor and disabled, but he also said it does not offer states enough flexibility.
“Since 1965, the lion’s share of federal antipoverty spending has gone to health care. As with any federal program paid for by taxpayers, good fiscal stewardship and oversight is essential to help ensure sure every dollar spent is spent as intended,” Grassley said in the statement. “Well-intended but poorly constructed incentives — whether we are talking about defense dollars spent by the Pentagon or health-care dollars spent under the Medicaid umbrella — have fostered a system of runaway spending.”
As the Senate continues to debate health care, Grassley said, he will keep listening to individual Iowans. He will continue working for solutions that give states more flexibility to innovate and meet the needs of their populations that specifies those most in need, he said.
“Restoring stability in the individual insurance markets will help drive down costs and expand coverage with competition in the free market,” he said. “Bipartisan solutions to serious challenges are ideal. And we should work to achieve them.”