The Honorable John Thune
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Chuck Schumer
Minority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Majority Leader Thune and Minority Leader Schumer,
The nine undersigned national organizations represent people living with bleeding disorders and the hemophilia treatment centers (HTCs) that care for them. On behalf of our community, we write today to oppose provisions included in the Senate’s draft reconciliation legislation which would significantly cut federal health insurance programs, including Medicaid and Marketplace coverage. The Senate draft goes even further than the House- passed H.R. 1 in cutting Medicaid and, as such, will lead to coverage losses even greater than the original 16 million estimate – including many people who can least afford to go without coverage and care. We urge you to reject these policies.
Individuals living with bleeding disorders, such as hemophilia and von Willebrand disease, have complex, lifelong medical needs. They need ongoing access to biologic medications to avoid and/or treat dangerous bleeding. These medications are very effective and allow individuals to live healthy and productive lives, but they are also extremely expensive. Due to the high treatment costs and volatile nature of their condition and its comorbidities, people with bleeding disorders are very medically vulnerable and depend, to an almost unparalleled degree, on access to quality, affordable health coverage and care. About thirty percent of people in the bleeding disorders community access health insurance coverage through Medicaid. The Marketplace is another essential source of health coverage for those lacking job-based insurance who are ineligible for Medicaid or Medicare.
Cuts to the federal health insurance programs threaten access to care for people with bleeding disorders and millions of our fellow citizens. Medicaid funding reductions, work reporting requirements, mandatory cost-sharing, and limits on state funding mechanisms: these and other harmful Medicaid policies in the budget reconciliation bill would terminate coverage and jeopardize access to care for many people with bleeding disorders. Additionally, potential exemptions from the work reporting requirement would not eliminate these harms, as patients seeking exemption would have to successfully navigate substantial paperwork obstacles and comply with more frequent checks. The net impact on people with bleeding disorders would likely include causing preventable complications, disability, or worse for patients who lose coverage, and higher costs to the healthcare system as a whole.The Senate’s proposal, similar to H.R. 1, takes the wrong tack on policies affecting access to Marketplace insurance. The legislation makes Marketplace insurance less affordable by reducing eligibility for tax credits and by failing to extend the expiring enhanced premium tax credits – policy choices which will cause premiums to spike and consumers to lose coverage.
Stakeholders including AHIP, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and eighteen state-based Marketplaces across the country have all warned that H.R. 1’s ACA policies will make Marketplace coverage more expensive, more onerous, and more volatile. As healthier consumers flee, risk pools will become smaller, sicker, and more expensive, raising costs for all (like people with bleeding disorders) who remain in the Marketplace because they cannot survive without health insurance. For decades, members from both sides of the aisle have championed issues important to the bleeding disorders community. We now ask you to stand with us and so many others who rely on health insurance programs for access to coverage and care. Please reject the proposals included in the Senate’s draft legislation, and do not allow these drastic cuts to Medicaid and Marketplace coverage to become law.
Thank you for your consideration,
American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network
CHES Foundation
Coalition for Hemophilia B
Foundation for Women and Girls with Blood Disorders
Hemophilia Alliance
Hemophilia Federation of America
Hope Charities
National Bleeding Disorders Foundation
United States Hemophilia Treatment Center Network
Cc: United States Senate
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