Senate GOP Leadership Unveils Latest Version Of Health Reform Legislation

On July 13, 2017, Senate Republican leadership released the latest version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (summary of entire bill, including new amendment here) This post will address the private insurance sections of the amendment. A subsequent post by Sara Rosenbaum will discuss Medicaid changes. The original draft of the BCRA was introduced on June 22, 2017. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had hoped to call a vote on the proposal before the July 4 recess. By late June, however, an unfavorable Congressional Budget Office report—which found that the bill would result in 22 million consumers losing health care coverage—and opposition from both conservative and moderate GOP Senators caused him to pull the bill for further negotiations. The new amendment is intended to address some of the concerns of those who opposed the original draft. Senator McConnell reportedly hopes to hold a vote on it in the third week in July. The Original Senate GOP Bill To recap, the original BCRA repealed over a half trillion dollars in taxes on wealthy taxpayers and corporations imposed by the ACA, while phasing out the ACA’s enhanced federal funding for Medicaid expansion enrollees beginning in 2020. It also imposed a per-capita cap on federal Medicaid funding growth, beginning in 2020. It ended the ACA’s individual and employer mandate penalties. The original BCRA repealed the ACA’s income- and premium-based tax credits beginning in 2020 and replaced them with income-,...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Abortion association health plans catastrophic plans continuous coverage requirements Cruz Amendment health savings accounts state stability funds Source Type: blogs