The Senate is trying to push a vote for next week on the Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill, the latest attempt by the GOP to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
“It’s the worst of the various proposals to get rid of Obamacare. The worst,” said medical ethicist Art Caplan. “[It’s] grossly unethical, because it basically is returning power to the states rather than having national standards.”
Caplan explained that when states, especially poor states, are left in charge of healthcare, they decline to cover things that aren’t mandated by federal requirements.
“They don’t cover mental health or pregnancy care, contraception ... they just drop the coverage because they don’t have to follow any federal requirements,” said Caplan.
He said this will result in fewer protections for vulnerable populations like children and those in nursing homes.
“You’re getting a plan that basically says, ‘Let’s just give all the money in block grants to the states; let’s give more money to the states that didn’t work with Obamacare to expand Medicaid; let’s chop Medicaid back so that children, single head-of-households females, and those who are in nursing homes will have less money available to them, and let’s take out all the protections,'” he said. “It’s really a miserable, blockheaded plan.”
Medical Ethicist Art Caplan is Head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center ad the co-host of the Everyday Ethics podcast. To hear more of his interview with BPR, click on the audio player above.
