Post by revirdsuba99 on Nov 13, 2017 21:07:21 GMT
Elderly Americans shouldn't expect a friend in Trump's HHS pick
BY BRENDAN WILLIAMS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 11/13/17 03:20 PM EST 5 THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
In nominating Alex Azar to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, President Trump has, at least, selected someone with real administrative experience — experience disgraced former Secretary Tom Price lacked.
Azar, recently the president of Lilly USA, had previously served as deputy secretary and general counsel of HHS under the George W. Bush Administration.
If confirmed, Azar will run our nation’s largest civilian agency. By the most recent counts, 58.6 million Americans were on Medicare, and 74.3 million were enrolled in either Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
This is a time of unprecedented uncertainty for HHS programs. Congress failed to reauthorize CHIP by Oct. 1, allowing the program to lapse with states now running out of funds. House Republicans passed a reauthorization this month, but did so, in large part, by robbing a preventive care fund — that approach may not fly in the Senate. Access to health care for 9 million kids hangs in the balance.
A number of policy bills intended to repeal, and replace, the Affordable Care Act have failed, but the Trump administration is undermining the law it’s tasked with administering. Azar, an ACA opponent, is clearly on board with this process, having said of the ACA that “one of the nice things in it is it does give tremendous amount of authority to the secretary of HHS.”
More troublingly, failed ACA legislation was a stealth attack upon traditional Medicaid dating to 1965, and not simply Medicaid expansion under the 2010 ACA (expansion supported by many Republican governors). This attack upon the Medicaid that serves seniors in nursing homes and home-and-community-based settings is a huge component of the ongoing Republican tax cut process. The congressional budget resolution they passed, according to one recent analysis, relies upon $1.3 trillion in cuts to ACA subsidies and Medicaid in order to offset $1.5 trillion in tax cuts.
Azar has been a proponent of cutting Medicaid through so-called “block grants.” Sold under the pretext of giving states more freedom, block grants would actually dismantle the federal-state partnership that is the Medicaid program by forcing states to make do with less.
more at link:
thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/360124-elderly-americans-shouldnt-expect-a-friend-in-trumps-hhs-pick
BY BRENDAN WILLIAMS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 11/13/17 03:20 PM EST 5 THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
In nominating Alex Azar to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, President Trump has, at least, selected someone with real administrative experience — experience disgraced former Secretary Tom Price lacked.
Azar, recently the president of Lilly USA, had previously served as deputy secretary and general counsel of HHS under the George W. Bush Administration.
If confirmed, Azar will run our nation’s largest civilian agency. By the most recent counts, 58.6 million Americans were on Medicare, and 74.3 million were enrolled in either Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
This is a time of unprecedented uncertainty for HHS programs. Congress failed to reauthorize CHIP by Oct. 1, allowing the program to lapse with states now running out of funds. House Republicans passed a reauthorization this month, but did so, in large part, by robbing a preventive care fund — that approach may not fly in the Senate. Access to health care for 9 million kids hangs in the balance.
A number of policy bills intended to repeal, and replace, the Affordable Care Act have failed, but the Trump administration is undermining the law it’s tasked with administering. Azar, an ACA opponent, is clearly on board with this process, having said of the ACA that “one of the nice things in it is it does give tremendous amount of authority to the secretary of HHS.”
More troublingly, failed ACA legislation was a stealth attack upon traditional Medicaid dating to 1965, and not simply Medicaid expansion under the 2010 ACA (expansion supported by many Republican governors). This attack upon the Medicaid that serves seniors in nursing homes and home-and-community-based settings is a huge component of the ongoing Republican tax cut process. The congressional budget resolution they passed, according to one recent analysis, relies upon $1.3 trillion in cuts to ACA subsidies and Medicaid in order to offset $1.5 trillion in tax cuts.
Azar has been a proponent of cutting Medicaid through so-called “block grants.” Sold under the pretext of giving states more freedom, block grants would actually dismantle the federal-state partnership that is the Medicaid program by forcing states to make do with less.
more at link:
thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/360124-elderly-americans-shouldnt-expect-a-friend-in-trumps-hhs-pick