The Seattle Stranger: “JHB has voted to rollback Medicaid expansion a couple times, and she bragged about voting to repeal the ACA ‘more than 80 times,’ which would have kicked 20 million Americans off health insurance.”
New reporting shows what voters in Southwest Washington already knew – Jaime Herrera Beutler lies about her opponent’s record and is in the pocket of drug manufacturers and the health insurance industry.
According to The Seattle Stranger, Herrera Beutler has been running false attack-ads that cite a big pharma and health insurance industry-backed study that wrongly claims Carolyn Long would work to close rural hospitals.
In reality, Carolyn Long’s health care record would improve support for rural hospitals and would not work to undermine them, unlike Herrera Beutler who has voted to roll back Medicaid expansion and bragged about repealing the ACA “more than 80 times.”
Statement from DCCC Spokesperson Andy Orellana:
“Not only does Herrera Beutler use corporate-backed studies to lie about her opponent’s record, she does it with the help and support of health insurance industry executives and her corporate backers. This coziness with corporate DC donors that shows she’s turned her back on Southwest Washington’s working families, shown by her votes to roll back Medicaid expansion and bragging that she voted to repeal health care over 80 times.”
Read more about how Herrera Beutler lies about her opponent’s record and cozies up to her corporate special interest, below or here.
Seattle Stranger: Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler Runs Misleading Ad Citing Pharma-Backed Study
by Rich Smith • Oct 19, 2020
In her latest attack ad, Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler claims her Democratic challenger, Carolyn Long, “supports a radical healthcare scheme that would close Washington hospitals.” The ad then flashes a big, scary quote that reads, “HALF OF RURAL HOSPITALS COULD CLOSE” should Long get her way.
Both claims are wrong, and it’s worth taking a moment to knock them down not only to remind voters in a flippable district of JHB’s somewhat cozy relationship with an industry dedicated to bankrupting Americans, but also because Republican super PACs are running similar ads against Democrats across the country. Republicans are coming for the public option, and they’re doing it with a study Big Pharma paid for, and it’s useful to know how to shut them up.
The claim in JHB’s ad rests on the most extreme scenario described in a 2019 study about “the potential impact of a Medicare public option on U.S. rural hospitals.” Partnership for America’s Health Care Future—which is composed of large pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, various private hospitals, and the odd chamber of commerce—paid for the research JHB’s ad cites, so it’s no surprise the paper highlights flimsy doomsday scenarios untethered to reality. And given the amount of money those industries dump into JHB’s campaigns, it’s no wonder she approves their message.
[…]
In fact, recent government and academic studies show rural hospitals fare far better in states that chose to expand Medicaid, which typically pays lower reimbursement rates than Medicare, under the Affordable Healthcare Act precisely because insured populations increased. As it turns out, getting some money from the government is better for hospitals than getting no money from the uninsured. Who woulda thunk.
If you’re looking for some more supporting evidence, look no further than Washington state, which chose to expand Medicaid. According to the University of North Carolina’s rural hospital closure tracker, the last rural hospital to close here was Deer Park Hospital, once located north of Spokane. The hospital shuttered all the way back in 2008 “after failing in recent years to admit enough patients,” reports the Spokesman-Review. That’s not to say rural hospitals here aren’t in trouble in WA—they are!—but that’s because health care costs are too high and because the pandemic response caused revenues to dip.
[…]
Anyhow, according to her Pandemic Recovery Plan, Long supports a public option and promises to “fight hard for federal funding for our rural hospitals” on top of that. She also pledges to support state-level plans that look like rural hospital boosters implemented in Maryland and Pennsylvania. So, no, Long doesn’t support a “radical healthcare scheme” that would close Washington hospitals. She supports a moderate health care scheme that will likely improve the financial solvency of rural hospitals.
Meanwhile, JHB has voted to rollback Medicaid expansion a couple times, and she bragged about voting to repeal the ACA “more than 80 times,” which would have kicked 20 million Americans off health insurance. Talk about a “radical healthcare scheme.”
###