We’ll continue to update you on pertinent developments.
I went on the air with Jack and Joe this morning to discuss this, the media's coverage of it and what the AHCA will actually do with respect to pre-existing conditions.
You can listen to all Armstrong and Getty shows here.
Here is a smattering of some of the better media coverage on this proposed law:
How the GOP health care plan differs from Obamacare
May 4, 2017 - ABC News
Excerpt: "In brief: What the AHCA does:
- Ends individual mandate, imposes surcharge for coverage lapse
- Ends Obamacare premium subsidies, offers tax credits instead
- Rolls back Medicaid expansion across 30 states
- Allows states to impose Medicaid work requirement
- Expands health savings accounts
- Allows states to waive federal "essential health benefits" requirement and set own standard
- Allows insurers to charge older people up to 5 times as much as younger
- Repeals consumer taxes
- Imposes abortion restriction on tax credits
- Imposes Planned Parenthood restriction for Medicaid
- Requires insurers to allow young adults to stay on parents' plans until 26
- Allows states to permit insurers to charge more for pre-existing conditions
- Allocates $8 billion to help subsidize people with pre-existing conditions in state high-risk pools
- Prohibits insurers from imposing lifetime or annual limits on coverage
- Establishes "patient and state stability fund" to help states service low-income Americans"
House passes ObamaCare repeal
May 4, 2017 – The Hill
Excerpt: “The narrow 217-213 vote is a victory for GOP leaders, who faced a tumultuous path to getting the bill to the floor. The measure had to be pulled in March because of a lack of votes, but a series of deals since then brought on board the conservative Freedom Caucus and then wavering moderates.”
U.S. House Narrowly Passes AHCA; Bill Heads to Senate, Fate is Unclear
May 4, 2017 – The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers
Excerpt: “The bill eliminates the employer and employee mandates; replaces the ACA’s income-based subsidies with tiered tax credits, gradually increasing for older Americans; allows states to apply for waivers to define their own essential health benefit requirements; expands the limits for Health Savings Accounts; discontinues Medicaid expansion in 2020; and repeals most of the ACA’s taxes. The legislation would delay implementation of the Cadillac Tax by five years, from 2020 to 2025, and it importantly preserves the tax exclusion for employer sponsored insurance.”
The health care bill's path forward in the Senate
May 4, 2017 – Axios
Excerpt: “It’s been widely assumed the current GOP health care bill working its way through the House would be vastly changed in the Senate-in fact, that’s part of leadership’s pitch to moderate holdouts. But Senate Republicans are already thinking about what it will take to get the bill through the upper chamber, and the changes are not as vast as some might think.”
May 4, 2017 – Axios
Excerpt: “It’s been widely assumed the current GOP health care bill working its way through the House would be vastly changed in the Senate-in fact, that’s part of leadership’s pitch to moderate holdouts. But Senate Republicans are already thinking about what it will take to get the bill through the upper chamber, and the changes are not as vast as some might think.”
