IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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Guest Commentary | What Davis doesn’t get about Medicaid | The News-Gazette
By Claudia Lennhoff and Julie Pryde
April 8, 2018
On March 27, The News-Gazette’s Local section featured a long article on Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, after he held a press conference at a local CVS.
As the directors of two key health care organizations in Champaign County, we were appalled at the congressman’s comments regarding health care. His comments made clear that Rep. Davis simply does not understand Medicaid, the health insurance market and employment in the 13th Congressional District.
Both of our organizations — the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and Champaign County Health Care Consumers — work with community members every single day to help them get the health care they need and to improve our community’s health.
We have reached out repeatedly to Rep. Davis over the past year, offering to meet with him and to provide education and information, and to serve as a resource for him on health policy matters that affect his constituents. Rep. Davis has never responded to our offers.
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It is a mistake to assume, as Rep. Davis does, that “good” jobs come with “good” health insurance. Rep. Davis clearly does not know that employer-sponsored health insurance is declining in the United States.
The Commonwealth Fund, among other organizations that look at trends in employer-based health insurance, has documented that fewer employers are offering health insurance, and the types of employer-based health plans they are offering are becoming increasingly unaffordable because of cost-shifting onto the employee, especially in the form of high deductibles.
In fact, it is precisely because of the decline in employer-based health insurance that the number of uninsured Americans was rising every year, reaching about 50 million uninsured at the time that the Affordable Care Act was passed. This is exactly why the ACA was passed — so that people could have health insurance coverage that did not depend upon their source of employment.
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We at CUPHD and CCHCC have seen the life-saving difference that Medicaid coverage has made for our constituents. We are happy to provide more facts and information to anyone who requests it, including Davis.
But, regrettably, we are in the unfortunate position of having to tell the public that Rep. Davis does not understand health policy or how it works in his district.