Follow The Money: Big Hospitals Support McCain’s Graham-Cassidy Rejection

Whenever Senator John McCain says he is acting on principle, Arizonans know to follow the money. Almost immediately after McCain announced in a tweet that he was acting on “principle” in rejecting the Graham-Cassidy bill that would reform the Affordable Care Act, big money groups offered backup.

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Before the ink was dry on advertising contracts, ads paid for by the Coalition to Protect American’s Healthcare were played on stations in Arizona in support of McCain’s position.

In 2013, Arizona State legislators benefited from supporting Medicaid expansion, while conservative opponents were targeted by the healthcare organizations. Hospitals fought hard and spent big money in support of expansion.

According to Politico under Obamacare, hospitals have enjoyed record profits, and not necessarily by providing benefits to the public:

Obamacare may have been a mixed blessing for those seeking coverage through the state exchanges, some of which have seen double-digit annual premium hikes, but it’s been a clear boon for the nation’s hospitals.

Multiple studies have linked the ACA’s coverage expansion to improved financial performance, with one analysis finding that hospitals’ profit margins went up by 25 percent in states that expanded Medicaid in 2014. Overall, the industry boasted an 8.3 percent profit margin that year, according to the most recent figures published by the American Hospital Association. That’s the highest performance on record — more than triple the industry’s 2.6 percent profit margin in 2008, amid the recession and before the Obama administration began pushing its health care reforms — and it’s only invited scrutiny from advocates and researchers who say that it’s a sign the system is broken.

Timothy Carney, in the Washington Examiner noted that the “healthcare providers has been consolidating, with smaller practitioners forced by regulations to sell out to bigger hospitals, meaning consumers have fewer choices and the market has less competition. Good news for the big guys. Bad news for everyone else.”

While low-income families have experienced some benefit from expansion in Arizona, middle-class families, who do not qualify for subsidies have lost care to due the fact that it is now unaffordable.

“Health insurance premiums nearly tripled in Arizona between 2013 and 2017, the fourth-biggest increase among the 39 states that participated in healthcare.gov, according to new data from the Department of Health and Human Services,” reported Cronkite News in May.

“Arizona’s 190 percent increase meant a monthly premium increase of about $400 to a consumer in the state, to $611, under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare,” continued the report. “The average monthly increase for all marketplace states was 105 percent.”

In July, McCain dramatically killed the “skinny repeal” of Obamacare.

The Board of Directors for the Coalition to Protect American’s Healthcare is comprised of some of the biggest corporate beneficiaries of Medicaid expansion:

MARNA P. BORGSTROM
Coalition Chair
President and CEO
Yale New Haven Health System
New Haven, CT
RICK POLLACK
President and CEO
American Hospital Association
BRUCE SIEGEL, MD
President and CEO
America’s Essential Hospitals
ROBERT J. HENKEL
President and CEO
Ascension Health
St. Louis, MO
DARRELL G. KIRCH, MD
President and CEO
Association of American Medical Colleges
JOHN T. PORTER
President and CEO
Avera Health
Sioux Falls, SD
NANCY HOWELL AGEE
President and CEO
Carilion Clinic
Roanoke, VA
SR. CAROL KEEHAN, DC
President and CEO
The Catholic Health Association of the United States
MARK WIETECHA
President and CEO
Children’s Hospital Association
MATTHEW S. GALLIVAN
Vice President, Government Relations
Quorum Health
Brentwood, TN
CHIP KAHN
President and CEO
Federation of American Hospitals
ANDY W. CARTER
President and CEO
Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, PA
VICTOR L. CAMPBELL
Senior Vice President
HCA
Nashville, TN
GARY P. FISCHETTI
Company Group Chairman, North America
Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices, Inc.
Raynham, MA
KENNETH A. SAMET
President and CEO
MedStar Health
Columbia, MD
STEVEN ROSE
President and CEO
Nanticoke Health Services
Seaford, DE
PAUL R. BENGTSON
Chief Executive Officer
Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital
Saint Johnsbury, VT
MIKE ABRAMS
President and CEO
Ohio Hospital Association
Columbus, OH
SUSAN D. DEVORE
President and CEO
Premier, Inc.
ROD F. HOCHMAN, MD
President and CEO
Providence Health & Services
Seattle, WA
TRAVIS HEIDER
President and CEO
Rochester Regional Healthcare Alliance
Rochester, NY
STEVEN I. GOLDSTEIN
President and CEO
Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital of the University of Rochester
Rochester, NY
KEITH B. PITTS
Vice Chairman
TENET Healthcare
Dallas, TX
CURT NONOMAQUE
President and CEO
Vizient, Inc.
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