* Rodney Davis campaign…

Last week, Betsy Londrigan, Nancy Pelosi’s candidate for Congress in IL-13, held a press conference via Zoom. The first question Londrigan received was concerning her support for Medicare X, the Medicare public option plan, which achieves health care “cost savings” by cutting funding for hospitals, doctors and nurses by nearly $800 billion over a decade, according to a non-partisan review of the plan. Londrigan was asked to respond to the review, but dodged the question and stuck to her talking points instead.

“Londrigan refuses to talk about her support for Medicare X because she knows her plan would have dire consequences for health care workers and patients across central Illinois. The Londrigan-backed Medicare X plan would result in $800 billion in cuts for hospitals, doctors and nurses. Advocating for massive health care cuts in the middle of a global pandemic is dangerous; unfortunately, that’s Londrigan’s plan.” – Aaron DeGroot, Davis campaign spokesperson

Betsy Londrigan announced her support for Medicare X last fall. Since then, the American Hospital Association has spoken out against the dire consequences of the Londrigan-backed Medicare X plan, if it ever went into effect.

The Londrigan-backed Medicare X plan achieves health care “cost savings” by cutting funding for hospitals, doctors and nurses by nearly $800 billion over a decade, according to research conducted on behalf of the American Hospital Association (AHA).

* OK, about that $800 billion figure. From the American Hospital Association’s study…

The spending reductions occur among populations who previously had private coverage and are the result of lower prices under the public plan.

For those who previously had ESI and non-group coverage, spending would fall by 4 percent and 30 percent, respectively. The larger non-group spending impact is driven by both higher per- person spending and higher take-up rates among that population. Among those uninsured in the baseline, we estimate spending would increase by 10 percent, which is driven by higher service utilization rates for those gaining insurance coverage. This increase in spending for the originally uninsured partially offsets the reduction in spending among the other groups. […]

We still forecast high-levels of public plan enrollment that reflects some coverage gains among the uninsured but is mostly driven by crowd-out of commercial coverage. Over the period from 2025 to 2034, health care spending for the relevant population would decline by 8 percent, with hospital spending being more affected than other types of spending. […]

We also find that the revised bill would produce larger spending reductions than the original bill. This is partially the result of one-year change in full implementation (from 2024 to 2025) and medical price inflation. In addition, we find higher take-up in the public plan among both the uninsured and non-group enrollees. Higher uninsured take-up decreases spending impacts and higher non-group take-up increases spending impacts. We find the latter effect exceeds the former, resulting in slightly larger health care spending reductions.

* This congressional district has a huge number of major regional hospitals, likely the most in Illinois and perhaps one of the most in the country. Those hospitals are significant local employers and they also drive technological development. Not to mention that hospitals have been especially hard-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then again, millions of Americans have lost their employer-based insurance coverage this year.

So, I asked the Londrigan campaign for a response.

* Here’s her campaign manager Jacob Plotnick…

When she is elected, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan will look to support a plan to expand access to affordable health care that protects coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and does not force people off of their private insurance or make cuts to hospitals.

Congressman Davis is trying to divert attention away from the fact that he is partnering with the Trump administration to overturn the Affordable Care Act through the courts which would have an immediate and terrible effect on millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. After voting 11 times to repeal health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions, supporting a plan that would have charged older Illinoisans an age tax for their coverage, and repeatedly voting against bipartisan bills to lower the cost of prescription drugs, Davis is doubling down on his industry-friendly schemes that line the pockets of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. He’s trying to muddy the water, but the facts are crystal clear. Congressman Davis wants to restrict access to health care and Betsy Dirksen Londrigan wants to expand it.