Tag: ACA

Report: ACA Continues to Help West Virginians

Data released Tuesday by the United States Census Bureau shows the Affordable Care Act continues to reduce the number of West Virginians without health insurance.

In 2016, 96,000 West Virginians lacked health insurance coverage – that’s down 12,000 from the previous year, according to a news release from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy – which studied the U.S. Census Bureau’s data.

Nearly 95 percent of West Virginians had health insurance last year.

Between 2013 and 2016, West Virginians without health insurance declined by 9 percent. West Virginia has had the fifth largest decrease in its uninsured rate among all 50 states under the ACA.

Interim Executive Director for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy Sean O’Leary says the Affordable Care Act has been vital to the overall health of the state. Particularly, he says, it’s aided with substance abuse issues and developing treatment for opioid addiction.

Capito Votes for Partial Health Law Repeal; Manchin Votes No

West Virginia’s Republican U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has voted to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act in legislation defeated in a 51-49 floor vote early Friday.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin voted against the latest amendment proposed by the Senate’s majority Republican leadership.

It would have repealed a mandate in President Barack Obama’s law that most people get health insurance, suspended a requirement that larger companies offer employee coverage, suspended a tax on medical devices and denied federal payments to Planned Parenthood for a year.

Manchin and Capito both said afterward they’re ready to work on bipartisan fixes.

About 525,000 of West Virginians are enrolled in Medicaid. About 175,000 joined under the act’s expansion.

About 35,000 others got coverage through the act’s insurance exchange, where premiums have risen sharply.

Interview: Sen. Sanders on GOP Health Care Reform

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders held two health care rallies yesterday in Covington, Kentucky and Morgantown, West Virginia, telling attendees to put pressure on their state representatives to vote against the GOP health care plans. Kara Lofton spoke with Sanders about his visits and what he thinks the proposed legislation would mean for Appalachia. 

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Proposed GOP Cuts to Medicaid Could Cause Job Loss, Hospital Closure in Rural America

A vote on the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act has been put on hold after several Republican Senators, including West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, have publicly said they cannot support it. Nationally, opposition for the bill continues to mount as more and more groups release reports about the negative impacts the current bill could have on access to treatment in rural areas, like much of West Virginia.

The most recent analysis of both the House and Senate versions of the bill was released earlier today by the Chartis Center for Rural Health. Chartis is a national firm that provides strategic and economic planning services to some of the largest healthcare providers in the country.

According to the group’s findings, if Congress follows through with the proposed cuts to Medicaid, rural health care providers could lose nearly a billion and a half dollars of revenue per year.

This comes at a time when 41 percent of rural hospitals are already operating with budget deficits and many others have closed due to financial strain. The continued loss of revenue, according to the Chartis report, could result in additional closures, leaving rural Americans with fewer options when it comes to health care.

But the impact to rural health systems is larger than access to treatment, the report says.  It’s also economic.

If the Senate’s version of the bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would pass, the Chartis Center estimates 34,000 community and health jobs would be lost. States that expanded Medicaid, like West Virginia, are estimated to experience nearly twice the number of job cuts when compared to their non-expansion counterparts.

West Virginia’s Senators, Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin, have both said they have concerns over the bill’s impacts in West Virginia. The actions by the Republican majority this week likely means the bill will see changes before being put to a final vote in the Senate.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Six West Virginians Arrested after Sit-In at Senator Capito's Office

Six West Virginians held a sit-in at Senator Shelley Moore Capito’s office in Charleston yesterday saying they wouldn’t leave until she votes against the Senate bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. The group was peacefully arrested around 5pm.

The Senate plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act was released last week. Five Republican Senators have come out against the bill as written. West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Captio has not made a definitive statement one way or another. Her office told West Virginia Public Broadcasting yesterday that she “is continuing to review and working to improve the health care legislation released last week. She welcomes and appreciates the perspectives of West Virginians as this process continues.”

The group holding the sit-in is part of Rise-Up West Virginia, one of many state activist groups who have expressed opposition to the GOP health care plan.

“If she doesn’t vote no, she is doing such damage to the citizens of West Virginia that we would hope the citizens of West Virginia would realize how bad that is,” said Terry Pickett, one of the stand-in participants.  

The Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the Senate plan Monday. It found the bill would leave 22 million more people uninsured by 2026 than are today under the Affordable Care Act. That’s about a million fewer than a similar plan proposed by the House last month.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Report Projects GOP Health Bill Will Harm Hospitals in Every State

This week, the U.S. Senate debuted their GOP health bill, a plan that includes deep cuts to Medicaid. These cuts would have dramatic impacts on hospital finances in every state, according to an analysis released this morning by the Commonwealth Fund, particularly in Medicaid expansion states like West Virginia.

Over the next 10 years, uncompensated care costs may increase by almost 80 percent in Medicaid expansion states, the analysis found. The authors project that by 2026, West Virginia could expect to see uncompensated care costs rise 122 percent and 165 percent in Kentucky.

The report also said that rural hospitals will be negatively affected, many of whom have already been struggling to keep doors open. Concerns about infrastructure – not just hospitals, but also federally funded health centers – are echoed by Michael Brumage, executive director of the Kanawha-Charleston County health department.

“It’s not only the provision of direct medical care, but also the community’s ability to respond to things like disease outbreaks or floods like we had last year here in West Virginia,” he said.

So far, five Republican Senators have come out against the bill. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito has expressed concerns with the legislation, but has not formally made a statement one way or another.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

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