By Chip Kahn, President and CEO, Federation of American Hospitals
At the end of 2023, I wrote to you that the political winds of 2024 would determine the policymaking for 2025. The questions facing us at the start of 2024 were asked and answered, and the President-elect and a newly sworn-in 119th Congress are wasting no time laying out their plans to execute that vision.
Change Coming to Washington: In November, voters motivated largely by economic concerns resoundingly ushered in political change, bringing a potentially different direction to the health care policy landscape in Washington. A lamer-than-usual lame duck culminated in a continuing resolution that extended key health care priorities for which we have long advocated – but only until March when the funding bill expires. Congress saw the wisdom in extending programs that protect rural care and seniors’ telehealth services while preventing Medicaid cuts to hospitals that threaten patient care, and we’ll continue pushing for longer term extensions that provide patients more certainty.
However, to secure passage of the continuing resolution, House Republican leadership outlined a plan to reduce spending by $2.5 trillion. This presents Congress and the Administration with the complicated task of juggling their policy goals with their constituents’ needs – including essential access to affordable health care. I won’t pretend to know how this will shake out, but the FAH will stand up for patient access to 24/7 hospital care. After all, evidence is strong that you can’t reduce access to care and hope for better outcomes.
Good Care Depends on Good Coverage: Here’s what I do know – today, a record nearly 24 million Americans receive affordable health care coverage through the individual marketplace, and 90 million people receive health care coverage through Medicaid. The marketplace’s enhanced tax credits will expire at the end of this year, which could result in upwards of 5 million Americans losing their health care coverage. Meanwhile, some voices are suggesting potential changes to Medicaid, which would severely limit patients’ access to hospital care around the country. The risks to hardworking Americans across the country are real – and patients – in red and blue Congressional districts alike – need to be confident their access to affordable coverage will be sustained.
It’s The Economy: If voters sent a message in the last election, it is that they are concerned about the economy and their pocketbooks – and that includes health care costs. Allowing the enhanced tax credits to expire will mean the cost of health care premiums are out of reach for millions of American families, exacerbating the economic frustrations facing folks across the country. At the same time, cuts to Medicaid mean families struggling to make ends meet will lose their health care, and cutting Medicaid supplemental and State Directed Payments will leave hospitals less able to meet the care needs of hardworking Americans – and further increase patients’ health costs.
FAH is already hard at work teaming up with partners across the health care landscape and making the case to policymakers on the importance of protecting patients’ access to affordable care.
I hope you got your rest over the holidays because 2025 is going to be a busy one. Here’s to the New Year!
