3 | BUSY SIGNAL MARCH 20, 2017 | VOL. 53, No. 12
4 | REIMAGINING westfaironline.com
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Health care providers alarmed by GOP plan BY ALEESIA FORNI aforni@westfairinc.com
A GOING OUT GREEN Kerry Potter displays a casket made of willow and sea grass rope at her Dying to Bloom shop in Nyack. For story, see page 2. Photo by Aleesia Forni.
f ter House Republicans rolled out their plan to replace and repeal the Affordable Care Act with a bill titled the American Health Care Act, responses from the health care community ranged from cautious optimism to downright disgust. Since its introduction, the GOP’s plan has faced opposition from health care groups including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Nurses Association and the American Hospital Association. Dr. Peter Liebert, a pediatric surgeon practicing in Westchester
and Fairfield counties, has coined a nickname for the proposed legislation, one he hopes will catch on. “There was Obamacare or Affordable Care,” Liebert said. “This will be the Disaster Care Act.” Liebert said that if the bill passes, the implications would be “tremendously negative.” “Why the Republican leaders in the House would put through a bill like this is beyond me,” he said. “This is not something that’s appropriate, and if they feel they have to do something, they should do something with deliberation, with thought, and consult the health care community, which it doesn’t look to me as if they have.” That sentiment was shared by Dr. Robert G. Lerner, a professor at New York Medical College and chief of hematology at » PROVIDERS, page 6
The waiting game WILL THE GOP HEALTH CARE PLAN BE BETTER OR WORSE FOR EMPLOYERS? BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH rdeffenbaugh@westfairinc.com
A
ny conversation about the impact the Republicanbacked proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act would have on employers tends to start with a caveat: it’s still early.
The GOP’s American Health Care Act is being reviewed in the House of Representatives and some provisions could change. Democrats representing Westchester, U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Reps. Nita Lowey and Sean Maloney, have vowed to fight against what has been dubbed
Trumpcare. Opponents point to a Congressional Budget Office report released March 13 that said 24 million more people could be uninsured under the new law. While much of the early discussion on the bill’s potential impact has focused on Medicaid and the individual market, the bill is likely to affect employers as well. In New York, about half of the state’s residents receive insurance through an employer, according to numbers kept by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health policy foundation. Opinions range on what the exact impact on business in Westchester will be if President
Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans follow through on a pledge to replace former President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation. The ACA was opposed by major business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and taken to court by the National Federation of Independent Business. But will all employers be happy to wave goodbye to Obamacare? “I think some of the criticisms that we heard from businesses were the mandates, the fines and some of the bureaucratic issues, such as paperwork and compliance,” said John Ravitz, vice president of The Business Council of
Westchester. “To me, if you’re really going to replace some of the aspects of the Affordable Care Act to make it more accessible and realistic for businesses, you need to simplify some of these things.” That gets to the question of what exactly will replace the ACA and how much it will change. The Republican proposal does keep in place some of the more popular provisions of the ACA, such as requiring insurers to cover people regardless of pre-existing medical conditions and allowing people to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26. » WAITING GAME, page 6