Petaluma residents voice healthcare concerns

Shortly after Republicans unveiled much anticipated proposals for healthcare legislation Monday, Congressman Jared Huffman convened a panel of healthcare experts for a Petaluma town hall where he offered a scathing review of GOP plans to dismantle the Affordable Care Act as he fielded questions from Sonoma County residents anxious about the proposal’s impacts.

Nearly 1,000 people packed into the Veteran’s Memorial Building to share their concerns about a changing healthcare landscape as Huffman, D-San Rafael, promised to resist the GOP agenda, which he said threatens health care for millions of Americans, including many of his own constituents.

“I want to contrast one of the things President Trump has said with reality,” said Huffman, whose district spans from the Oregon border to Marin County. “He has said in his speeches, without citing any data, that he has this plan, this replacement plan, and we’re all going to love it and it’s going to be great. That’s nice, but the Congressional Budget Office has a different view of what’s likely going to happen with the Republican plan … They talk about nightmarish consequences that involve millions of people losing insurance, major hits to the federal budget and increases in health care costs.”

The Obamacare replacement bill, dubbed The American Health Care Act, calls for an eventual rollback of the Medicaid expansion, for an overhaul of the federal-state Medicare program and for funding cuts to Planned Parenthood. Among other measures, it also seeks to replace the Obamacare subsidies in the individual market with individual tax credits awarded based on age to help people gain insurance while also eliminating mandates for coverage, points of contention with the crowd.

Huffman said that while the Affordable Care Act has its shortcomings, he recognized its help in providing quality healthcare and boosting coverage, calling it an “important step forward.” He said the current GOP plan threatens the “California success story” that’s unfolded under the Affordable Care Act, which has led the state’s uninsured rate to drop from 17 percent to 7 percent, Huffman said.

About 23,000 Sonoma County residents have secured insurance through Covered California’s health exchange marketplace, while an additional 35,000 residents have new coverage as a result of Obamacare’s expansion of Medi-Cal, the state’s form of the federal Medicaid program, according to data from the county. A total of about 150,000 residents of Sonoma County are enrolled in private insurance through Covered California or government insurance.

“There’s just so much concern here - this doesn’t fulfill the campaign promises of ‘We’re going to have a better healthcare system, we’re going to cover more people.’ This doesn’t do anything to make coverage more affordable for people who don’t find it affordable now, this only makes it worse for folks,” said Yasmin Peled, a panelist and the Northern California community organizer for Health Access, a heath consumer advocacy coalition. She said the plan will “fundamentally change” how Medi-Cal is administered resulting in funding cuts while leaving people out.

Some in the room expressed concern about veterans’ benefits under President Donald Trump, drug costs, impacts on community health clinics, the implications of abolishing heath care mandates and replacing them with a penalty system, potentially leading to a dip in younger Americans with insurance. Under the draft bill, insurance firms would be allowed to add a 30 percent surcharge if consumers drop coverage for more than 63 consecutive days.

Stephen Brauer, a member of the Community Leadership Board of the American Diabetes Association, implored Huffman to stand up in a “highly polarized” political environment.

“It seems like the activism you’re feeling here and seeing here and is starting to make its way back to Washington,” he said. “But we really need you to fight like hell.”

Kathie Powell, CEO of the Petaluma Heath Center, said that while many residents have gained insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the economic impact of repealing it would be “more significant” than the loss of the coverage.

“If we look at just the economic impact argument from Republicans - the economy is always a big talking point,” she said. “In Sonoma County alone, total impact of expanded Medi-Cal and the ACA and all the insurances, is over $400 million ... and it’s more like 4,000 to 5,000 jobs. If you multiply that across that the country, it’s surely more jobs than the president could possible bring back in manufacturing.”

The GOP proposal has already drawn strong opposition from both sides of the political spectrum, including conservatives and healthcare groups.

“Some of you may have heard President Trump say ‘Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated,’?’’ Huffman said. “Only if you’re a billionaire ... would you say something so incredibly naive and uninformed.”

Huffman also voiced his support for single payer health care, though he said it could be a “long slog” to establish such a system.

The Democrat encouraged his constituents to remain vocal, attending meetings and reaching out to friends and family in Republican districts. He said the “most important thing” he can do is host large public conversations, like the Petaluma town hall, on a frequent basis.

“I had hoped when I ran for Congress in 2012 that maybe I could improve the tone, improve the outcome, make Congress more productive. I still want that, I really do, but it’s very clear to me right now that’s not the way I’ve got to do my job. I am much more of a pugilist right now,” he said.

(Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.)