Eve Meltzer-Krief MD, FAAP
(Dr. Eve Meltzer-Krief MD, FAAP is a pediatrician in Huntington and member of the NYS AAP Chapter 2 Legislative Committee and Suffolk Pediatric Society. She is the founder of organization called Long Island Inclusive Communities Against Hate.)
This week marked the 53rd birthday of Medicaid and Medicare. This is a moment when we should celebrate these two programs that together provide quality, affordable health coverage to over one hundred million Americans. They include the elderly, children, disabled and low-income households.
This occasion should also remind us of the serious threats to healthcare that we face. The coverage for pre-existing conditions is at risk. This month, a district court in Texas will hear a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. The Trump Administration, instead of defending the ACA, has agreed with the lawsuit’s argument, suggesting that the Department of Justice will not defend against it. If this lawsuit prevails, then insurance companies will be allowed to deny healthcare to millions of people on the basis of pre-existing health conditions, or make them pay much more to be covered.
Rising healthcare costs are another concern. Heath insurance companies have submitted their requests for higher premiums for 2019. These same companies made huge profits thanks to the tax bill that was passed in December – up to a 145 percent increase in first quarter profits from 2017 to 2018. In New York, the average requested increase is 24 percent. These requested premium increases are posted on the website of the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) which makes the decision on granting them or not.
We also face the dire threat to Medicaid from those who are trying to revive the Graham-Cassidy bill, which did not pass the Senate last year. This is the same bill that was opposed so strongly by medical professionals and advocacy groups such as the AAP, AARP, American Diabetes Association, and American Cancer Society; and governors around the country, to name just a few. If Graham-Cassidy is revived it would eliminate the expansion of Medicaid that has covered over 15 million Americans in the states that chose to expand it. It would convert Medicaid into a block grant program. This means that states would receive a fixed amount from the federal government and they would have to meet all their Medicaid requirements within that fixed amount, making them unable to respond to actual need. Federal funding to states would be reduced by $120 billion from 2020 to 2026.
Finally, the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court Justice could put the ACA and Medicaid expansion in peril. He argued in a 2011 dissent that the president should be able to refuse to enforce the ACA even if the Supreme Court upheld the law’s constitutionality. His appointment could also put women’s reproductive rights at risk. He ruled in 2015 that the Affordable Care Act’s birth control coverage mandate infringed on religious liberty.
Long Islanders along with all New Yorkers need to make their voices heard and their representatives should stand with them in the fight to prevent the dismantling of healthcare protections and coverage for all – especially those who need it most.