AHA Ad Urges Congress to Help Hospitals, Uninsured in Economic Recovery Plan

Hospitals took their fight to keep their services intact and staff from joining the millions of uninsured Americans to Congress this week.

The American Hospital Association released a new print ad Tuesday asking members of Congress to sign a letter urging President Elect Barack Obama to include economic help for hospitals and uninsured Americans in his economic recovery plan.  AHA spokesman Matt Fenwick told insideARM that the print-only ad will run for about a month in Roll Call, Congressional Quarterly and Politico.

Obama, who visited Capitol Hill this week to detail and drum up support for his economic recovery plan, has said the package will include some funding to help health care providers invest in health information systems. But the AHA is asking for much more with the backing of Reps. Robert Brady (D-PA) and Joe Wilson (R-SC), who circulated the AHA’s letter to lawmakers.

In addition to temporarily increasing the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage for state Medicaid programs, the AHA wants lawmakers to;

• Expand health coverage options for the newly unemployed, including subsidizing COBRA premiums and extending the period for COBRA qualification from 18 months to 36 months.
• Create a program to cover newly uninsured people treated by hospitals, similar to the Medicare Modernization Act program to cover the cost of treating illegal immigrants.  
• Improve hospitals’ access to capital.

The AHA’s ad notes that hospitals have always struggled with “tough economic realities.” But the American economic crisis has hit hospitals unusually hard, the AHA said, with the industry’s third quarter uncompensated care expense increasing eight percent compared to the year ago period.  With nearly 20 percent of Americans living without insurance and some economists predicting that unemployment could reach 10 percent this year, the AHA says 53 percent of hospitals are considering cutting or considering cutting staff.  It added that 27 percent of hospitals are cutting or considering cutting services.

“This pressure, coupled with other payment pressures, is leading to a decline in hospitals’ financial health at a time when demand for health care services is growing,” the AHA said its proposal outlining what it believes will keep the industry in the black.

Dennis Smith, a senior fellow of health policy for the Heritage Foundation, said that what hospitals need is true health care reform instead of temporary fixes.

“Simply putting in more federal dollars is going to slow down the reform that states like New York already concede they need to make,” Smith said.

He added that if hospitals argument is that rising unemployment is forcing hospitals to care for even more uninsured, giving the industry more money is the easy solution.

“Let’s find a primary care solution, not put it (more funding) into the most expensive setting to treat someone,” he said.