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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – WASHINGTON – The American Psychological Association and its affiliated APA Practice Organization today expressed strong opposition to the Graham-Cassidy proposal to repeal and replace major portions of the current health insurance system, urging the Senate to reject the bill and resume bipartisan discussions of proposals to stabilize the health insurance marketplaces, lower the cost of health care and extend coverage to more of the millions of Americans still without it.
“We oppose any health care legislation that results in fewer Americans having access to health insurance,” said APA President Antonio E. Puente, PhD. “Before the Affordable Care Act, an estimated 45 percent of individual health plans did not cover substance use treatment, and more than one-third did not cover mental health treatment. We don’t want to go back to those days, especially in the midst of the opioid epidemic.”
It is also critical that Congress not act until the bill, proposed by GOP Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office.
The legislation is projected to reduce federal health care funding to states by more than $200 billion through 2026, replacing Medicaid expansion funding, premium tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments with smaller block grants. For any health care coverage supported by the proposed market-based block grants, existing requirements for minimum benefit packages – including coverage of mental health and substance use treatment — would be waived. The legislation’s block grant formula would institute the deepest cuts on those states that have done the most to expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act. In addition, by eliminating the individual and employer mandates, the legislation would have a destabilizing influence on the individual insurance market.
“The legislation also eliminates critically important funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund, and prohibits funding for providers that primarily offer reproductive health services under Medicaid,” said APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD. “This change will effectively curtail access to care for many low-income women and sexual and gender minorities, many of whom rely on these providers for their overall health care.”
With substantially less funding, states would be compelled to reduce coverage and benefits, he added. “We believe Congress should stop efforts to repeal and replace and begin to invest and improve the current law,” he said.
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