Congess needs to come home and stay

by Tom Campbell, Producer and Moderator, NC SPIN, July 20, 2017.

In their fervor to repeal and replace Obamacare, our Congress has run head first into a wall of political reality: once you extend benefits to people it is almost impossible to take them away. Despite all the bluff and bluster, Congress can’t come up with the needed votes to replace Obamacare, nor do they have the numbers to repeal it. And the threats to let Obamacare collapse are a sure ticket to economic chaos and political upheaval.

Few deny that Obamacare has serious problems that require fixes. Too many younger, healthy people would rather pay the current penalty than sign up, leaving the Affordable Care Act unaffordable to both insurers and those patients who signed up. Too many states, like ours, have only one provider offering coverage to all counties, and premiums to those who are covered are steadily increasing. We could also include on the list of fixes the ability to negotiate costs of prescription drugs, allowing insurers to cross state lines to offer coverage, tort reform and other changes.

Both the House and Senate versions of so-called “replacement” legislation make deep cuts to Medicaid, promising states more flexibility through block grants. North Carolina has been down that road before, discovering too late that assurances of flexibility were more promise than reality. Slice and dice any way you like, but the end result is fewer Medicaid dollars coming to North Carolina.

Our state currently faces a serious healthcare crisis and all the uncertainty coming out of Washington only exacerbates the problem. Many North Carolina hospitals, most of which that depend heavily on Medicaid reimbursements to stay afloat, are already in crisis mode. Sources tell us no fewer than five hospitals, mostly in smaller to medium-sized communities, are inches away from insolvency. Further Medicaid reductions will shutter their doors, leaving thousands of patients with long drives, longer wait times and shortages of beds in those hospitals that do remain open.

It was almost comical that Congress, in an effort to secure support from certain elected representatives, was eager to cut deals and throw money at those states that expanded Medicaid. States like ours, convinced that federal promises to virtually pay all the costs of that expansion were unsustainable, got no consideration. We were essentially penalized for being fiscally responsible.

America is hurtling ever faster to the inevitability of a single-payer national healthcare system, with the payer being government. Our public-private healthcare system is not serving us well and needs triage. Many don’t want a “socialized medicine” solution, but the inability and unwillingness to find better options is taking us down a path on that road.

Instead of taking a summer recess, perhaps Congress needs to go home and stay. If North Carolina’s congressional delegation stays home long enough to stop listening to their party caucuses, lobbyists and each other, they might actually hear the concerns of everyday people and learn the problems facing state and local leaders, as well as healthcare professionals.

Congress should return to Washington when, and only when, they are genuinely ready to do what they were elected to do, mainly take actions that serve all the people in their districts and states. A good case can be made that we won’t be any the worse for their being home.