By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
“Government works kind of slow.”
As a former Ellis County and Hays city commissioner, Barb Wasinger already knew that before she was elected last fall as the 111th District state representative from Hays. Now she’s in Topeka, where the state legislative process is even slower.
During a Saturday morning forum in Hays, Wasinger and other local legislators – all Republicans – along with First District Congressman Roger Marshall talked about Medicaid expansion in Kansas as well as health care reform.
The rising cost of health care is one of the top concerns of Kansans, according to Marshall, a Republican from Great Bend.
“What we have in 2020, I think is a big choice, very much a binary choice,” said Marshall. “I think it’s very evident both Democrats and Republicans are ready to throw out the Affordable Care Act. It hasn’t worked.
“We want to address what it didn’t, and that’s the cost of health care.
“The Democrat plan would be universal health care, Medicare for all which is really Medicare for none. It’ll end up looking like Medicaid. If you’re getting health care through your employer, that’s going to be gone. If you’re in the VA (Veterans Administration) system, that’s going to be gone.”
Marshall says he wants to push choices back to the state level and “let the states run more of those types of solutions, whether it’s individual market or other things.”
The true issue, Marshall believes, is driving down the cost of health care.
“If I can drive the cost of health care down, then those people with pre-existing conditions can afford health care,” Marshall said.
“And it’ll help your state budget because it will drive Medicaid expenses (down). I can maybe someday balance the budget at the federal level.”
Currently, 28% of the federal budget is spent on health care, according to the Kansas congressman.
“I’ll never be able to balance the budget until I get the costs of health care down.”
Marshall says there are three basic principles to driving down the cost of health care – transparency, innovation and consumerism.
“When you go out for a meal, you get more information from the menu than when you have a hip procedure done, or when you walk into an emergency room and you then get a helicopter ride plus all the surprise billing.”
Pharmacies also lack transparency. He said there are four Pharmacy Benefit Managers in the United States controlling 90% of the market.
“When you go to your local pharmacist and spend $100 a month on your medication, that Pharmacy Benefit Manager is extracting a third of that. They don’t improve health care and they’re giving legal kickbacks to big pharma and insurance companies.
“That just first needs to be transparent. I think when America sees that, they’re going to scream and say this isn’t right.”
Innovation will do more to drive the cost of the health care down than any legislation, “if we just get the government out of the way,” Marshall stressed. He is a longtime obstetrician and gynecologist.
As an example, he said twice as many generic drugs are now being approved per year than were during the Obama administration. “We got the government out of the way and expedited the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) process.”
Marshall’s third principle for lowering health care costs is consumerism – making patients consumers once again.
He wants all patients to have access to an HSA – Health Savings Account – and use pre-tax dollars to pay health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket medical expenses.
“Don’t let the press fool you. We (the Republicans) do have a plan. We have 20 bills, each to help guide the cost of health care down 1 or 2%. Most of it is common sense. Now the question is, can Congress execute some of those plans?”
Many major health care systems are no longer accepting any of the Affordable Health Care Act plans, also known as Obamacare, because “they look like Medicaid,” Marshall said.
“Many of the reimbursements are so horrible, the household factors are so bad, that most of the major institutions are no longer going to accept any of these individual market plans.”