Cassidy continuing health care efforts
Published 6:00 pm Friday, July 26, 2019
Give credit to U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, who is on the forefront of trying to fix expensive parts of the country’s health care system. Cassidy had a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), but Democrats and some Republicans killed it in 2017.
Cassidy hasn’t given up and is now working with Democrats to try and make some sensible changes to Obamacare rather than repealing the entire law. It would be a much better solution than some of the costly ideas like Medicare for all being advocated by Democratic presidential candidates.
The Advocate said health care insurers are struggling to control costs by creating network doctors and hospitals. However, patients often get large bills when they use an out-of-network doctor like an anesthesiologist.
Cassidy and U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, are backing legislation to fix that problem. The GOP could very well claim credit with voters if it dealt with drug prices and physician fees and focused on day-to-day costs, the newspaper said. However, that would still fall short of dealing with things like the tremendous paperwork involved in Medicare.
While policymakers like Cassidy are trying to deal with fixing some of Obamacare’s problems, his state and 17 others have gone to court still trying to invalidate the law. A Texas federal judge has declared the entire law invalid and that decision is being appealed by 20 other states and the District of Columbia.
Like it or not, Obamacare has been extremely beneficial for states like Louisiana. It has desirable features like health care plans available on insurance exchanges, the right of young adults to stay on their parents’ plans, lifetime limits on out-of-pocket expenses and rights for people with pre-existing conditions.
The expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health care plan for low-income Americans, has given more than 450,000 Louisianans coverage they couldn’t otherwise afford.
The Louisiana Legislature passed a law designed to give citizens a health care plan preserving the popular parts of Obamacare, but there is no provision for paying for that kind of coverage. State Attorney General Jeff Landry, who joined the states wanting Obamacare repeal, doesn’t agree but so far there is no financial solution without federal help.
We hope Sen. Cassidy is successful in his continuing effort to give Americans the kind of health care they need and can afford. If that Texas decision is eventually upheld, they could end up with nothing.
