The Tennessee Hospital Association and the patient advocate group Alliance for Healthcare Security say the latest version of the Senate health care plan still has fatal flaws.
In a news release, hospital association president Craig Becker said the modified version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act released Thursday “shows some improvement, [but] still does not have the best interests of Tennesseans at heart nor the hospitals that serve them.”
Becker cited “dramatic long-term cuts and structural changes” to federal Medicaid funding and Medicare reimbursements to doctors, as well as “relaxed” benefit requirements for insurance plans.
The modified bill would not require insurers to cover the 10 essential health benefits required under the Affordable Care Act. Limiting benefits, he said, “would undoubtedly throw the insurance marketplace into even greater turmoil and increase premiums for older, sicker Tennesseans.”
“We appreciate the efforts in the Senate to soften the blow of the BCRA, but these latest changes still fail to fully address the real challenges facing the individual insurance market. It also continues to take on the daunting and unrelated issue of Medicaid reform, which would be better dealt with in a separate legislative process,” Becker said.