As GOP health bill collapses, worries remain among Pennsylvania Medicaid backers

Consumer health advocates remained wary Tuesday of potential changes to Medicaid even as a Senate Republican proposal to reduce funding for the program sank from a lack of support.

“We know that this is not a final victory,” said Antoinette Kraus, executive director of Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Health Access Network.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he wouldn't hold a vote on the Senate proposal, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, after four Republican senators announced they wouldn't support the bill. The bill partially repealed the Affordable Care Act, including changing Medicaid by scaling back expansions of the program in Pennsylvania and other states and reducing federal spending on it over time.

Utah's Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas announced their opposition Monday, joining Susan Collins of Maine and conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky. McConnell said Tuesday he would revert to a vote on whether to repeal the Affordable Care Act without replacing it, an effort that drew opposition from some Republican senators earlier this year.

A straight repeal would threaten Pennsylvania's Medicaid expansion, which made the program available to people with higher incomes than in traditional Medicaid. Pennsylvania officials have estimated that reversing the expansion would leave the state with about $3 billion less in federal money per year to pay medical bills for people enrolled in the program.

Republicans have said changes are needed to make Medicaid sustainable. The Department of Human Services, which oversees the program in Pennsylvania, is projected to spend the second-highest amount of money among state agencies for the year, according to state Independent Fiscal Office projections.

Kraus said the program could again be targeted for spending reductions as part of the Senate budget process. Any reductions in funding for the program would force the state to decide how to allocate remaining dollars, she said.

One group that potentially could be affected is parents of severely disabled children, who qualify for the program regardless of income or insurance status through a provision known as PH-95, she said. Congressional Republican proposals so far have not targeted the provision directly.

In a Tuesday conference call with reporters arranged by Pennsylvania Health Access Network, several mothers with children covered under the provision said they worry Medicaid stereotypes are influencing the dynamics of Obamacare repeal. Many elected Republicans have made repeal part of their campaign platforms since Democrats passed the law in 2010 with no Republican votes.

Marlee Stefanelli, 39, of South Abington in northeastern Pennsylvania, said Medicaid helps pay for her 5-year-old son Matthew's type 1 diabetes treatment. Medicaid pays for a device that monitors his blood sugar at all times and sets off an alarm when it gets too low, which can trigger seizures. A private insurer wouldn't cover the device, Stefanelli said.

“It's been life-changing to us, because we used to get up multiple times per night to check his blood sugar. Now we're able to sleep again because this thing alarms when it's going to happen,” she said.

Stefanelli, who co-owns a mental health therapy practice with her husband, shared her story in the conference call hosted by Pennsylvania Health Access Network.

Anna Corbin, 38, of Hanover in Southeastern Pennsylvania, said on the call that Medicaid covers her sons Jackson, 11; and Henry, 9, who have a genetic condition known as Noonan syndrome.

Corbin said she and her husband racked up $42,000 in credit card debt and thousands more in medical debt as her sons' treatment costs mounted. She said they relied on yard-sale clothes and couldn't afford winter boots for the boys.

She found out about the PH-95 Medicaid program and enrolled. Medicaid's treatment payments allowed her and her husband to afford basic life staples, furnishing a better quality of life for their sons.

“It's not just the health care part; it's also the livelihood of these kids,” she said.

Corbin said her husband works for a car insurance company and she stays home and cares for their sons.

Stefanelli and Corbin each said they didn't think of Medicaid as a program for them before they faced the realities of paying to treat their children's medical conditions.

Wes Venteicher is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-380-5676, wventeicher@tribweb.com or via Twitter @wesventeicher.