Hospital Groups and American College of Physicians Say No to GOP Healthcare Plan

The Republican Party, in trying to replace the Affordable Care Act, have run into a buzzsaw of opposition, including voices within the industry. The American Hospital Association’s president, Richard Pollack, wrote a letter to House Republicans telling them,

“We look forward to continuing to work with the Congress and the Administration on [Affordable Care Act] reform, but we cannot support The American Health Care Act in its current form.”

As Vox’s Ezra Klein says,

In their desire to sneak all this past the American people, Republicans did not get the American Health Care Act scored by the Congressional Budget Office. They are now getting nailed for their lack of transparency. Remember when they regularly accused President Obama of a lack of transparency?

Pollack wrote,

“Any ability to evaluate The American Health Care Act, however, is severely hampered by the lack of coverage estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Lacking that level of analysis and needed transparency, we urge that Congress should. wait until an estimate is available before proceeding with formal consideration.”

That is precisely what Republicans don’t want to do. They know what shining a light on their monstrosity of a plan will reveal. They wanted to hustle their plan into effect without waiting.

As Politico’s Adam Cancryn reveals, the American Federation of Hospitals is also opposed to the Republican plan, if it can be called that:

As has the American College of Physicians, who in their own letter to Congress said the “AHCA will have a tremendously negative impact on access, quality, and cost of care.”

Turns out the Republican plan to enrich insurance company execs and the wealthy isn’t so popular with those whose life is dedicated to actually helping people – the very same people Republicans are supposed to be dedicated to helping.

As political missteps go, this is a big one. Ezra Klein no doubt correctly points out that “The GOP health bill doesn’t know what problem it’s trying to solve.”

Probably because the GOP’s general rule of thumb is to fix non-existent problems while ignoring real ones. In truth, they just can’t see past Obama’s name.

The GOP health bill does, however, know who it wants to benefit, and that fact is not lost on hospitals or physicians, who fully realize the people to benefit are not their patients.

Now they have spoken out in what amounts to a barrage of rotten eggs thrown at the cast of the worst political theater production in town: GOP health care reform.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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