“People across our country deserve a health care system that is both affordable and accessible, rather than a health care system that forces them to choose between coverage or affording groceries.” – Former CMS Director Chiquita Brooks-LaSure
“When you cut coverage, you’re not balancing a budget, you’re balancing it on the backs of patients and those providers” – Emergency Medicine Attending Physician Dr. Chris Ford
MADISON, Wis. — Today, on a press call, former CMS Director Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and emergency medicine attending physician Chris Ford spoke in horrifying detail about the catastrophic impacts Wisconsin, and America, will experience if the GOP refuses to continue funding the ACA.
Nearly 90% of the 313,579 Wisconsinites enrolled in the ACA are at risk of seeing their premium skyrocket at the beginning of November when open enrollment begins. To that point, Brooks-LaSure detailed how “states that have not expanded Medicaid coverage, like Wisconsin, are especially at risk, as both rural and urban hospitals are already facing high pressure from uncompensated care costs compared to states that have expanded Medicaid,” while Dr. Chris Ford noted “When that coverage disappears, the nature of our emergencies change, they become more avoidable crises.
See what the speakers had to say, in part, or watch the full event here.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, former CMS Director:
“Three Wisconsin rural hospitals have already signaled that they may close due to the Republican tax law [….] states that have not expanded Medicaid coverage, like Wisconsin, are especially at risk, as both rural and urban hospitals are already facing high pressure from uncompensated care costs compared to states that have expanded Medicaid. No one in Wisconsin should have to forgo health coverage because it’s too costly, facing strains on their small business due to skyrocketing premiums or to drive hours longer for care because their rural hospital is shut down. People across our country deserve a health care system that is both affordable and accessible, rather than a health care system that forces them to choose between coverage or affording groceries. And yet the Republican tax law and congressional Republicans’ decision to not renew the critical health insurance subsidies for marketplace enrollees have sent us down a trajectory that will force millions of Americans, some as early as this fall, to face this reality and make the difficult choices to affect their health care.”
Dr. Chris Ford, emergency medicine attending physician:
We’ve seen sicker patients, longer wait times and fewer safety nets to catch people before they fall. When people lose their insurance or if they can’t afford it, the ER becomes their doctor’s office, it becomes their pharmacy and it becomes their safety net, all at once. […] Communities are losing access to timely care. When that coverage disappears, the nature of our emergencies change. They become more avoidable crises. Uncontrolled diabetes because they can’t afford their medications. Preventable strokes, asthma attacks triggered by skip medications for folks picking and choosing which other medications they can afford. These are not isolated incidents. They’re predictable fallout of coverage and stability. And as rural hospitals close or scale back, every lost clinic, every lost inpatient bed becomes another patient rerouted to an ER, often hours away from where they live. Every cut upstream becomes a crisis downstream.[ …] I’m urging all policy makers to protect Medicaid funding and extend the ACA premium tax credits and invest in the safety net that keeps my ERs open in the state and throughout the country, and that keeps our neighborhoods alive, because when you cut coverage, you’re not balancing a budget, you’re balancing it on the backs of patients and those providers. And as someone who has looked into the eyes of too many patients who have waited too long to seek help, I can tell you this, the cost isn’t measured in dollars. It’s measured in lives.
