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CareSource Joins Chorus Of Opposition To Latest GOP Obamacare Repeal Bill

CareSource is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio medicaid affordable care act
Joshua Chenault
/
WYSO

Officials with Dayton-based health insurance company CareSource are speaking out against a proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act. The company’s president has added her name to a letter opposing the Republican-backed bill known as Graham-Cassidy.

Nonprofit CareSource is one of the largest Medicaid providers in the country, and in the state of Ohio.

Now, CareSource President and CEO Pamela Morris has joined more than a dozen other Medicaid Plan CEOs in 30 states, urging Senate lawmakers to reject the Graham-Cassidy health bill.

In a letter addressed to Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, the CEOs detailed their objections to the bill’s proposed cuts to Medicaid, Medicaid expansion and Marketplace-plan subsidies, and the legislation’s proposal to shift financial responsibility for Medicaid funding to the states.

"By its nature, the capped federal financing model in this legislation does not offer such protections. While block grants may promise some degree of increased program flexibility for states, they impede preparation for and timely response to public health emergencies. Past examples include the outbreak of the Zika virus and new, vaccine-resistant strains of the flu. Most recent examples include the needed response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma," the letter reads.

 
The CEOs predict the changes could leave 32 million Americans without health insurance over the next decade and hurt some patients with preexisting conditions -- findings echoed in an independent analysis by theBrookings Institution.

The Medicaid-plan coalition is calling for a bipartisan solution to health care reform.

Read the full letter here.

Read more about the Graham-Cassidy health care bill at NPR News.

Jess Mador comes to WYSO from Knoxville NPR-station WUOT, where she created an interactive multimedia health storytelling project called TruckBeat, one of 15 projects around the country participating in AIR's Localore: #Finding America initiative. Before TruckBeat, Jess was an independent public radio journalist based in Minneapolis. She’s also worked as a staff reporter and producer at Minnesota Public Radio in the Twin Cities, and produced audio, video and web stories for a variety of other news outlets, including NPR News, APM, and PBS television stations. She has a Master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She loves making documentaries and telling stories at the intersection of journalism, digital and social media.