Stabenow expresses support for many AHA advocacy priorities

If the U.S. Supreme Court this June rules that subsidies are not available for individuals in the 34 states whose health insurance exchanges are facilitated by the federal government, it would have “potentially devastating repercussions,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) at today’s AHA Annual Membership Meeting. “Nobody in their wildest imagination thought that those tax credits should only be available for one kind of exchange,” she said. Stabenow, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, expressed support for a number of issues important to AHA, including opposing reductions in payments for hospital outpatient departments and Disproportionate Share Hospitals; increasing residency caps at teaching hospitals; and extending permanently programs that are important to rural hospitals. In addition, Stabenow said the 340B Drug Pricing Program allows hospitals to get life-saving prescription drugs to low- and middle-income patients, and “I will be doing everything I can to maintain it.”