Trumpcare: ‘This is what our son’s surgery bills would look like’

A MOTHER of a boy with congenital heart defects has shown how exorbitant health care costs would be under proposed legislation.

A MOTHER of a young boy with congenital heart defects has shown how exorbitant health care costs would be for uninsured US citizens under proposed new legislation to repeal key parts of the Obamacare reform.

Alison Chandra’s son, Ethan, was born with heterotaxy syndrome, a rare genetic disorder in which organs form on the wrong side of the body.

But under new draft legislation, the family and those like it, would face bills of more than $US200,000 per lifesaving surgery.

The legislation introduced by Senate Republicans last week would cap federal Medicaid reimbursements, effectively cutting the program by billions, while repealing the Affordable Care Act’s 3.8 per cent capital gains tax, among other taxes targeting high-earning individuals.

It would also see the abolition of the provision requiring individuals to have insurance, leaving 49 million Americans uninsured by 2026, according to a nonpartisan budget forecast released by the Congressional Budget Office on Monday.

That represents 18 per cent of the American population under the age of 65 — compared to 10 per cent who are currently uninsured.

The report also warned that average premiums for benchmark plans for single individuals “would be about 20 per cent higher in 2018 than under current law,” mainly because the elimination of mandated coverage would prompt comparatively fewer healthy people to sign up.

In response to the legislation, Ms Chandra tweeted her latest hospital bill for Ethan on Friday. It quickly went viral with tens of thousands of likes and retweets.

“It seems fitting that, with the #TrumpCare debate raging, I got this bill in the mail today from Ethan’s most recent open heart surgery,” Ms Chandra captioned the bill.

It seems fitting that, with the #TrumpCare debate raging, I got this bill in the mail today from Ethan's most recent open heart surgery. pic.twitter.com/pyUE2UxbWW

— Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

Her calculations showed that the family would have owed a total of $US231,115 for the surgery if they didn’t have insurance.

“I’ll save you some math; without insurance we would owe $231,115 for 10 hours in the OR, 1 week in the CICU and 1 week on the cardiac floor,” Ms Chandra wrote.

I'll save you some math; without insurance we would owe $231,115 for 10 hours in the OR, 1 week in the CICU and 1 week on the cardiac floor. pic.twitter.com/CQ9OjOsFX8

— Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

Ms Chandra told CNN her “fear is that this bill comes into play and suddenly essential health benefits are no longer covered, like hospitalisation, prescription medications”.

“He will rely on prescription medications for the rest of his life. He is functionally asplenic and will need to take prophylactic antibiotics the rest of his life to prevent and protect against sepsis, a huge risk of death for our kids in the heterotaxy community,” she said.

“Heterotaxy syndrome literally means different arrangement.

“Any of the internal organs can be malformed, missing, multiplied or misplaced.

“Ethan was born with nine congenital heart defects and he has two left lungs. Five or so spleens of dubious function, his liver and his gallbladder are down the middle of his body along with his heart, and then his stomach is on the right instead of the left side.”

Just waded through some particularly harsh mentions, and I guess Ethan knew. Feeling his heart beat against my chest never gets old. pic.twitter.com/kzp8UcABOc

— Ali (@aliranger29) June 26, 2017

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he wants to hold a final vote on the controversial draft legislation on Friday.

While President Donald Trump’s Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the chamber, at least five Republican senators have publicly declared opposition to the bill in its current form which has made it a struggle for leaders to get it over the line.

Several others have expressed concerns about the measure, particularly its rollback of the expansion of Medicaid, the public health program for the poor and disabled. Democrats are united against the bill.

According to CBO, the Senate legislation would slash the federal deficit by some $321 billion dollars over the 2017-2026 period, almost three times the savings forecast for the bill passed by the House of Representatives last month.

Look my son in the eyes and tell him that he's fought so hard to be here but sorry, you're just not worth it anymore. I dare you. pic.twitter.com/IgdQOounyB

— Ali (@aliranger29) June 24, 2017

CBO said that the bill’s abolition of the provision mandating individuals to have insurance would precipitate a steep drop off in insured Americans.

Senator Bernie Sanders, the liberal independent who ran for president last year, blasted the bill as “cynical and immoral” immediately after the new CBO score.

“The reality is that this so-called ‘health care’ bill is nothing more than a massive transfer of wealth from working families to the very rich.”

The nation’s largest doctors’ group is outlining its opposition to the Senate Republican health care bill.

The American Medical Association sent a letter Monday to Senate leaders saying the draft legislation violates the medical oath to “first, do no harm.” The letter says the Republican plan is likely to lead to higher costs and greater difficulty in affording care for low- and middle-income patients. The doctors’ group says the Senate bill’s Medicaid payment formulas threaten to “limit states’ ability to address the health care needs of their most vulnerable citizens” and won’t keep up with new medical innovations and epidemics such as the opioid addiction crisis.

One of the nation’s biggest health insurers says the Senate health care bill will “markedly improve” the individual insurance market’s stability and moderate premium hikes.

Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Anthem says the bill will help in part by appropriating money for cost-sharing reduction payments and eliminating a health insurance tax.

Cost-sharing reduction payments help cover expenses like deductibles for people with modest incomes. Mr Trump has discussed ending these payments, and insurers planning to return to the exchanges next year want a guarantee that the payments also will return.

Anthem Inc. sells coverage in key markets like New York and California. It has said tough market conditions have forced it to pull out of exchanges in three states for 2018: Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana.

— With wires

Originally published as Trumpcare: ‘This is what our son’s surgery bills would look like’