Senate GOP health care bill castigated in hearing in Harrisburg

(Harrisburg) — The Republican health care plan in the US Senate slashes Medicaid starting in 2021.

At a House Human Services committee hearing in Harrisburg, some lawmakers and advocates said the hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts would be nothing short of disastrous for the state.

The proposal would force the commonwealth to add at least $1 billion in spending, drop people from coverage, restrict benefits, or start waiting lists.

Medicaid covers about 1.2 million children in Pennsylvania, plus 300,000 people with a disability.

57-year-old Julie Schnepp – a veteran – was homeless.

She was suffering from mental illness.

But during the hearing at the state Capitol, she spoke about how she found help through Medicaid.

“Community integration, self-directed care, certified peer specialists, and recovery coaches, and all of the programs that are in existence helped me get where I am today. And if it wasn’t for Medicaid, those things would not have happened.”

Schnepp is now a certified peer specialist, facilitator, and public speaker.

She’s been in recovery for five years.

Meanwhile, Richard Edley with the group Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association says cutting Medicaid doesn’t solve the problem.

“If you do not serve this population, it doesn’t just go away, and I think we all know that and we’ve heard things like it will be uncompensated care, emergency room care, cost shifts to the physical health system. Increased homelessness. Increased incarcerations,” says Edley.

Edley says Pennsylvania will be especially hard hit because of its rural population and the worsening opioid epidemic.

The most recent estimate put the annual price tag at more than $27 billion, and Republicans like Pennsylvania US Senator Pat Toomey says the federal government has to cut costs.