ICYMI: NDC Vice Chair Ami Bera Joins PPI Podcast to Discuss Health Care During Public Health Week
In case you missed it: In honor of National Public Health Week, New Democrat Coalition (NDC) Vice Chair for Outreach Ami Bera M.D. joined the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) Radically Pragmatic Podcast. Rep. Bera, a practicing physician, discussed the critical funding provisions in the American Rescue Plan and the state of health care after the COVID-19 pandemic with PPI’s Director of Health Care, Arielle Kane. The NDC, which has long advocated for driving down the costs of health care and stabilizing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included health care as a major pillar of the NDC’s 100 Day Agenda.
NDC Vice Chair Ami Bera spoke on his unique perspective and role in Congress as both a Member and a physician:
“I think myself, as well as the other doctors in Congress, lend a unique perspective around the pandemic. Being a senior Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, global health security is one of the areas that I have made a priority… We’ve been in a unique role not just to guide Members of Congress in how to think about addressing the health care challenges we’ve faced these past 12 months but also to go on television, speaking directly to the public in that role as both doctor and congressmember.”
He also spoke about the provisions in the American Rescue Plan and the NDC’s work to stabilize the Affordable Care Act and expand coverage to more Americans:
“The American Rescue Plan is a huge piece of legislation that we really have been working on, going back to last May, when the House passed the HEROES Act. You see a lot of those elements in the American Rescue Plan… It’s not only going to help make sure we get shots into people’s arms… but it’s also about going into some of those harder-to-reach communities or communities where you may have some vaccine hesitancy to make sure people understand that these are safe and effective, and they should get their vaccine. If we’re smart about how we use these resources, we’ll build the public health infrastructure that not only helps us beat COVID-19 but also starts to build a framework to address future pandemics and other ongoing public health issues.
“Lastly, something the New Democrat Coalition really worked on was this approach of stabilizing the ACAand also expanding coverage to take incremental steps to get towards universal coverage. That’s been the foundation of the New Democrat approach to getting to universal coverage and a lot of those ideas are in the American Rescue Plan, so we’re happy about that.”
Rep. Bera also discussed the need to expand access and drive down the cost of health care to work toward universal coverage:
“You talked about the two major components to address the health care challenges in America: access and affordability. On the access front, some of the ACA expansion that is in the American Rescue Plan is the Medicaid Expansion, and you are starting to hear what previously had been some hesitancy from Republican governors to expand Medicaid. Some of those state legislatures now are thinking about taking these resources from the federal government. So that gets us close to universal coverage – the expanded subsidies through the ACA as well as expanded coverage – not all the way there but that addresses a big part of the access issue.
“Now we’ve got to address the cost issue, because it doesn’t do us any good if you give someone health insurance coverage, but they can’t afford to use it. I think there’s a number of ways to approach it. One, we do think if you bring more people into the health care risk pool, it will have the effect of bringing the cost down. But you’re also seeing folks talk about caps on what patients will pay. Pharmaceutical costs are a big driver here, so are there things we can do, whether it’s reference pricing with pharmaceuticals abroad or you’re looking at the generic space to really disrupt and bring down the costs of generic medications. Lastly, I think where the real issue is that for 80% of the public, they are relatively healthy, they see health insurance as periodically they’ll go to the doctor, but they’re not regular users. But there’s 20% who have chronic illness and so forth – we’ve got to do a better job of providing services and managing the health of that 20% with chronic conditions to both better manage their disease and prevent some of those conditions. If we’re able to do that, and that’s something the New Democrat Coalition has worked on through various venues, we can start to bend that cost curve down.”
Listen to the full PPI Podcast. Read more on the NDC’s Third Pillar of the 100 Day Agenda: Protect and Expand Americans’ Health Care.
Source: PPI
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