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Health bill's critics hope to persuade Sen. Cassidy

BATON ROUGE (AP) — While neither of Louisiana’s Republican U.S. senators has committed to back the Senate GOP health plan, advocacy groups seeking to keep the current federal law intact have their focus squarely on only one of them: physician Bill Cassidy.

Cassidy, who spent much of his medical career working for Louisiana’s charity hospital system, has said he has problems with the bill that won House passage. It was the building block for the Senate legislation unveiled Thursday.

Cassidy’s concerns have critics of the Senate bill hoping they can persuade him to oppose the proposal. Sen. John Kennedy is seen more likely as a definitive yes vote for the GOP.

The Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates for poor and moderate-income families, panned the Senate health proposal as devastating for the state’s families, health providers and budget. The group’s statement suggested Cassidy “must demand that the Senate delay a vote” until more analysis is done to understand the proposal’s impact. Kennedy wasn’t mentioned.

During a press conference earlier in the week, the advocacy group and other organizations that are critical of the Republican health proposals urged people to call Cassidy’s office and tell him to oppose the legislation. Follow-up phone bank efforts also center on Cassidy.

“Of Louisiana’s two senators, Sen. Cassidy’s public statements have raised the most concerns and objections about the bill that passed the House and he’s been very clear in saying that he wants a bill that preserves coverage,” Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, said Friday. “The bill that’s before the Senate doesn’t meet that test.”

The Senate proposal would significantly shrink spending on the Medicaid program for low-income and disabled people, cut taxes on higher earners and the medical industry, let insurers provide fewer benefits and offer less generous subsidies for coverage than former President Barack Obama’s law.

It also would end tax penalties on people who don’t buy insurance policies and on larger firms that don’t offer coverage to workers, while phasing out the extra money given to states that expanded their Medicaid programs to offer insurance to the working poor.

Moller said he wouldn’t presume how Kennedy might vote, but noted the senator’s public statements have been critical of Medicaid spending and supportive of efforts to scale back the program.

“The Medicaid cuts are the part of the Senate bill that probably give us the most heartburn,” Moller said.

Louisiana’s senators haven’t taken a public position on the Senate proposal.

On Twitter, Kennedy said: “I’ll be reading through the Senate health care bill this weekend.

"We’ve got to fix the unmitigated disaster that is Obamacare.”

His office said Friday the senator had no further comment for now.

Cassidy, who proposed health care legislation that was sidelined by Senate GOP leadership, also was non-committal in his statement about the proposal released Thursday, saying it had some positive elements.

“I will study the bill to determine whether it fulfills President Trump’s campaign promises to lower premiums, maintain coverage and protect those with preexisting conditions without mandates,” he said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said his first review of the Senate legislation “raises several red flags for the state.” His biggest concern involves dismantling the

Medicaid expansion he enacted in Louisiana, which has given insurance coverage to 430,000 people. The enhanced federal financing that pays for the expansion would disappear entirely in 2024.

“The working poor, disabled and elderly appear to shoulder the burden in this latest version of Congress’ health care rewrite,” Edwards said in a statement.

“This is a step backwards for cost, coverage and care.”

Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte

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