Jul 19, 2017
Senate Health Care Bill Crashes
Watching the health care debate in Congress has been like watching a tennis match. The back and forth has been full of intrigue and drama. Just when you thought the match was over, something unusual happened to change the score.
As this is written, the plan is to force the Senate to vote on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act and give Congress two years to devise a replacement. Many are calling this plan unwise and irresponsible. Most believe it will not succeed.
Should the vote take place and pass both the Senate and House, the race will be on to come up with a health care replacement. Recent history demonstrates how difficult that would be.
Should this vote take place and fail, the question is, what’s next? The President has said they should just let the ACA fail. After that occurs, he says everyone will have to come together to replace it. Many in Congress believe that would be something close to political malpractice.
The other option would be for a coalition of moderate republicans and democrats to come together and devise common sense changes to the existing law that everyone concedes needs revised.
This last option provides the greatest chance that the priorities NAATP is most concerned about will continue to exist. Maintaining treatment for SUD as an essential health benefit is critical. The access to treatment afforded by the Medicare expansion provisions is also an important component.
We have much work yet to do before this debate concludes. Your involvement and communication to your members of Congress has been very important as we’ve gone through this process. That will continue to be the case moving forward.
Thank you for your support.
Mark Dunn
NAATP Director of Public Policy
Washington, DC
