- And now a "look ahead" to the hard lobby against the American
Health Care Act from the AARP, which is worried about how the
plan treats the elderly.
Joining us now is Lisa Lamkins, the Federal Advocacy Director
for AARP Wisconsin.
Thanks for being here.
- Glad to be here.
- So how unusual is this hard lobby on the part of AARP?
- A lot of times AARP will express our concerns about
pieces of legislation or we'll hope for tweeks but in this case
we really are vehemently opposed to the American Health Care Act.
It does nothing but increase cost, increase risk, really make
health insurance unaffordable and unattainable for older
Americans.
- So if premiums for older Americans between 50 and 64, but
particularly at the upper range of 64, are allowed to be five
times that of policies for younger people, what does that
mean to a 64-year-old?
- It is huge.
I think this is one of the things when we talk about this.
What it really amounts to is an age tax.
This is something that the federal government is imposing
simply because someone is older.
You take an average 64-year-old making a little over $26,000 a
year.
Right now they would pay about $1700 a year in premiums.
Under this new bill that would be closer to $14,000 in
premiums.
That's huge.
- So do you suspect then that there will be a number of people
who will just forego coverage?
- Absolutely.
You know, the Republicans are talking a lot about access to
coverage.
But access does not make something affordable.
I really like the analogy too of we all have access to luxury
goods right now.
I could go down and buy a super expensive car.
But I can't because I can't afford that.
And unfortunately we're looking at a group of people who really
will not be able to afford such egregious increases in their
health insurance premiums.
- So is the message the AART is trying to send to Washington
being heard, do you know?
- I think it is.
AARP is getting a lot of good press, a lot of attention.
This is a message that really resonates because so many people
are impacted by it.
We are talking about older, low-income Americans, people in
rural areas.
People are worried.
You're looking at 50 to 64-year-olds who are thinking,
'Gosh this is a point in my life when I really need insurance.
What will happen if it's $15,000 a year?"
- At 65 though, that one year older than the age we've been
talking about, people can go on Medicare and the president has
vowed not to touch Medicare.
But you see that this bill leaves the door open to turning
it into a voucher program.
How does it do that?
- Well, one of our concerns is under the American Health Care
Act it actually does away with some funding.
There's been a tax on higher-income Americans, a
little bit extra added tax on wealthier people that has been
funneled to Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund.
So it's actually extended the life of Medicare.
This bill does away with that extra money coming into
Medicare.
So we're concerned that if the solvency of Medicare is
worsening, that just leaves Medicare open to those who
already want to gut and change the program.
- And so it's not something in this particular plan that talks
about that, turning it into a voucher kind of program, but
it's just the concern on AARP's part that it could lead to that.
- Right, and they wouldn't be able to do it under the rules
of this particular bill, but it's very well-known that
Speaker Ryan, HHS Secretary Price would like to turn
Medicare into that voucher program.
And that would frankly be disastrous for
the millions of people in America who rely on Medicare.
- And then what about Medicaid as that affects the elderly
population?
- A lot of people don't think about it, but in looking at this
overhaul to Medicaid, which is a ginormous cut and would wreak
havoc with the program, older people depend on Medicaid for
long term care.
For nursing home care, for home and community based services,
for those things that help older people and people with
disabilities, actually, with things like eating, bathing,
dressing, medication management.
All of that is covered by Medicaid.
If the cuts that happen as part of the American Health Care Act,
then those services just will not be there for the people who
are really and truly depending on it.
- Will Wisconsin be treated differently in all of that
because we did not take the expansion?
- You know, it's going to be really interesting to see how
that actually shakes out.
I think the Medicaid issue is one where we're hearing from
governors, where governors including Governor Walker, are
saying, "Hey, let's move slowly.
Let's take a look at how we make this happen." Right now they're
looking at doling out these block grants based on the number
of people who are enrolled in Medicaid.
Well, Wisconsin's Medicaid population didn't increase
hugely because we didn't take the expansion.
So I think the actual details of what that's going to look like
is going to be one of the biggest parts of this whole
health care debate.
- Thanks for joining us, Lisa Lamkins.