The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Sept. 7 advanced several health care bills to the full committee, including The Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act of 2017 (ACE Kids, H.R. 3325). The bill uses the health home option that exists in current statute to create specially designed health homes for children with medically complex conditions to improve quality and reduce Medicaid spending.
The ACE Kids Act received support from members of both sides of the aisle during a Sept. 5 subcommittee hearing. To begin the hearing, Committee Vice Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), one of the bill’s sponsors, praised the bipartisan nature of the bill and noted, “It doesn’t expand coverage. It doesn’t increase spending - it makes it better.”
AAMC Chief Public Policy Care Officer Karen Fisher, JD, sent a Sept. 5 letter of support to the bill’s leads in both the House and Senate. The letter thanks Reps. Barton and Castor (D-Fla.) and Sens. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Bennet (D-Colo.) for their “leadership in introducing this bipartisan legislation to improve health care for children with complex medical conditions on Medicaid.”