Related:<\/strong> <\/p>\nHealth care is expected to be a key issue in the U.S. Senate race and has already sparked intense debate in the Democratic primary, with candidates pushing for expanded insurance coverage in a variety of ways. <\/p>\n
Federal data shows 34,000 fewer Michiganders enrolled in ACA health insurance plans this year as premiums rose due to expired subsidies. Changes to the Medicaid system under President Donald Trump could reduce the number of insured people in Michigan by 300,000, according to an analysis by a nonpartisan think tank.<\/p>\n
In his recent remarks, Rogers also proposed ways to increase staffing at federally qualified health centers. Health centers are designed to provide affordable care to the poor, but they have struggled to recruit doctors, calling them “one of the government programs that actually works.”<\/p>\n
“My argument is that if you work at a federally qualified medical center for five years, they will pay off your student loans to a doctor,” Rogers said, arguing that medical centers prevent poor people from paying expensive emergency room visits. <\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nMr. Rogers’ campaign did not directly respond to requests for clarification on his remarks. <\/p>\n
“Mike Rogers is exploring ideas with voters to increase health care affordability, including investing in rural hospitals, ensuring out-of-pocket payments for the wealthiest Americans, and improving transparency and access,” communications director Alyssa Breuil said in a statement, blaming Democrats for high health care costs. <\/p>\n
Nursing care prevention costs<\/strong><\/h2>\nAt an event with supporters, Rogers likened the free preventive care guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act to “a car insurance plan that pays even if your turn signal lights go out.” It’s a great insurance plan, but it will cost drivers more, he explained. <\/p>\n
“We need to start changing the way we look at health care,” Rogers says. <\/p>\nU.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who is supported by President Donald Trump, is proposing new health care reform proposals. (Chris Schantz, Bridge Michigan) A key provision of the Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to provide certain preventive health services, such as blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer screenings, at no cost to patients, among other things.<\/p>\n
Dr. Mark Fendrick, director of the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan, said people pay less when medical exams and tests have out-of-pocket costs.<\/p>\n
“Our research shows very clearly that even a few dollars more in cost-sharing reduces service utilization,” Fendrick said. <\/p>\n
But Mr. Fendrick also acknowledged that Mr. Rogers was “exactly right” when he suggested that free preventive services would increase costs, something Mr. Fendrick had strongly advocated for decades. <\/p>\n
Fendrick said that charging co-pays for preventive care would “lower costs in the short term,” but overall “individual and collective health would be worse.”<\/p>\n
Anand Parekh, chief policy officer at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, argued that when people skip preventive treatments because of cost, undiagnosed chronic diseases can spiral out of control and require expensive treatments. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe end up paying more for things that could have been prevented, or at least treated for less,\u201d said Parekh, who helped develop the Affordable Care Act’s prevention efforts.<\/p>\n
Preventive care is considered a “high-value” medical service by medical professionals, meaning it can do a lot to improve your health at a relatively low cost. <\/p>\n
To keep costs down, Fendrick urged policymakers to focus instead on “unnecessary care,” such as more lab tests and “CT scans for simple back pain.”<\/p>\n
“Devastating funds”<\/strong><\/h2>\nIn his remarks, Rogers also proposed that the federal government establish a “catastrophic fund” to lower premiums, and appeared to embrace the concept of high-risk pools, although he noted that “the sickest segments of society end up consuming the most health care services.” <\/p>\n
“So we’re going to pay premiums based on what normal life would be like, except for people who are really, really sick,” Rogers said. <\/p>\n
He added: “We put the really sick people into this fund and we all pay a little bit. The government pays, the hospitals pay, Medicare pays a little.”<\/p>\n
Before the ACA was enacted, nearly 30 states had high-risk pools for people with significant medical needs who were uninsured. The ACA essentially eliminated the need for these pools by requiring insurance companies to cover patients with pre-existing conditions. <\/p>\n
High-risk pools can reduce premium payments for healthy patients — that’s true, Parekh told Bridge. But it would also leave sicker, higher-risk patients whose expensive treatments would require “hefty” subsidies, he said.<\/p>\n
“This turned out to be costly for consumers and the government,” said Parekh, who also served as chief medical adviser to the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center. <\/p>\n
Returning to high-risk pool policies is “absolutely crazy,” Fendrick said, telling Bridge that pools are one in a series of ideas that have been “floated in concept for decades, but never had any policy or political undertones behind them.” <\/p>\n
Democratic Party’s position<\/strong><\/h2>\nRogers’ comments stand in sharp contrast to the ongoing health care debate in the competitive Democratic U.S. Senate primary. <\/p>\n
In a three-way race between U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed, the debate is not whether to limit coverage, but how far to expand it. <\/p>\n
McMorrow and El-Sayed have publicly clashed over their positions on a policy known as “Medicare for All,” a proposal for all Americans to be covered by a single federal insurance program. <\/p>\n
Mr. El-Sayed has long called for the program to be single-payer, with everyone enrolled by default, but Mr. McMorrow wants a public option that would allow people to choose or remain with a private health insurance plan. <\/p>\n
McMorrow accused El-Sayed of “reversing” his position by saying he supports supplementing personal reporting, while claiming that El-Sayed is “copying my homework, but it’s not enough” by taking more moderate positions on issues such as health care. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Stevens called for an expansion of the ACA, which currently exists, although he did not provide details. She had previously called for Medicare for All.<\/p>\n
Contributed by Robin Erb<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n
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