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Last updated on Friday, September 22, 2017
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly released the following statement on the latest partisan Senate health care proposal to repeal the health care law, the Graham-Cassidy bill, which is expected to be voted on in the Senate next week.
Donnelly said, "I've said from the beginning that we can improve our health care system by working together, Democrats and Republicans. The Graham-Cassidy proposal, like previous partisan efforts to repeal the health care law, would harm Hoosiers--forcing people to lose coverage, raising health care costs for seniors, ending the bipartisan HIP 2.0 program as we know it, and it could jeopardize critical protections for folks with pre-existing conditions. I hope that we can return to the bipartisan effort I have been actively involved in to stabilize the insurance markets."
The Graham-Cassidy proposal would turn Medicaid into a per-capita cap system, which would result in Indiana losing federal funding and could result in people losing coverage or paying more for coverage. And it would end HIP 2.0 as we know it, which Donnelly worked with then-Governor Mike Pence to establish through the Affordable Care Act. Nearly 400,000 Hoosiers use HIP 2.0 to access health care and it's a program that has been critical to Indiana's efforts to address the opioid epidemic.
According to a report from Avalere released today, Indiana would lose $7 billion in federal funding between 2020-2027 and $74 billion between 2020-2036.
Senate consideration of the Graham-Cassidy proposal will come the same week as the September 27th deadline for insurance companies to finalize their 2018 insurance rates. According to Indiana insurers, the combination of legislative uncertainty created by efforts to repeal the health care law and the Administration's failure to commit to making Cost Share Reduction (CSR) payments is likely to result in 15% cost increases in 2018. For months, Donnelly has been calling on the Administration to commit to making the CSR payments and has been actively engaged in bipartisan efforts in the Senate to stabilize the insurance markets.
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