Senator Murray Renews Call to Protect, Expand Access to Primary Care for Women and Children as Critical Provision Expires

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), incoming Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, issued the following statement on the January 1^st, 2015 expiration of a critical Affordable Care Act provision that helps protect access to primary care for the 62 million Americans covered by Medicaid.

“In the United States, it shouldn’t be any harder to get basic primary care because of how your family is covered, or because of the kinds of doctors you need to see more regularly. I introduced the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women and Children Act to not only protect families’ ability to get the health care they need, but expand access to doctors and providers that women see more often, like nurse practitioners and obstetricians.

“This legislation is a straightforward step toward helping more women and families get affordable, quality health care—a goal that both Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on—and I’m committed to continuing to fight for it this Congress.”

According to Urban Institute analysis, doctors who treat patients covered by Medicaid face, on average, a 42 percent cut in payments in 2015 due to the expiration of the Medicaid pay alignment provision.

See more on Senator Murray’s Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women and Children Act, which would extend and expand the Medicaid pay alignment provision in order to protect families’ access to primary care.