(3-13-17) What are we to think about Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy’s vote last week in the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee to repeal the Affordable Care Act?
Ever since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in 2012, Murphy has been a Capitol Hill champion for individuals with mental illnesses and their families. His dogged determination lead to passage of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act during the lame duck session in December, a major reform of mental health laws.
Yet last week, he voted along partisan lines to reject Obamacare – a move that every, yes, every major mental health organization strongly opposes.
The Republican’s repeal legislation as currently written will end Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which covers 1.2 million Americans with serious mental illness and substance abuse problems, as well as, scrap baseline coverage requirements. It also will do damage to mental health parity. These changes mean certain beneficiaries will no longer get coverage for mental health and substance abuse treatments guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act.
There are Republicans resisting Trump Care. Four Senate Republicans told Politico’s Brianna Ehley that they are deeply concerned about their party’s American Health Care Act (AHCA), which will replace Obamacare. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, they declared “reform should not come at the cost of disruption in access to healthcare for our country’s most vulnerable and sickest individuals.”
Senator Chris Murphy (D.-Conn.), who championed the Senate version of the Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis act, predicted dire consequences in Politico if the Medicaid expansion is ended.
“Emergency rooms better start staffing up because their psychiatric units are going to be overflowing.”
Here’s what mental health groups have said about the Republican’s legislation.
