Senate leadership staff will huddle this week with their colleagues on three key committees to begin drafting the chamber’s legislation to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law. “The drafting process is going to get underway,” said John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Senate Republican. “Now we have enough direction, we’ve had enough meetings, we’ve got enough input from our members to know sort of what the main issues are, and kind of where the moving points are and how we can dial things. We’ll start putting stuff together and get it out there and let people react to it.”
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If the Senate were simply to remove the House bill’s uniform tax credit and continue the hybrid model past 2019 through 2020 and beyond, the bill would most likely get a better coverage score from the CBO. The Senate would be able to direct more financial assistance to those who need it, whether because of old age, ill health, or low income. Indeed, the Senate could tweak the exact formulas for age and income adjustment to maximize the number of people with health insurance in the most cost-effective way.
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For Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, writing a Republican-only health care bill that can pass the Senate boils down to this question: How do you solve a problem like Dean, Lisa, Patrick, Ted, Rand and Susan?
Those are some GOP senators whose clashing demands McConnell, R-Ky., must resolve. Facing solid Democratic opposition to demolishing former President Barack Obama’s 2010 overhaul, Republicans will lose if just three of their 52 senators defect.
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Americans view Humana Inc. and Aetna Inc. no less favorably after the industry giants announced their plans to pull out of the Affordable Care Act’s individual exchanges in 2018, according to Morning Consult Brand Intelligence data.
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The Trump budget assumes Obamacare repeal. On the tax side of this, it particularly assumes repeal of the 3.8% point surtax on capital gains, dividends, and other savings (known as the “net investment income tax,” or NIIT). There are approximately 20 other new or higher taxes in Obamacare that also will be repealed. Tax reform assumes they are gone before starting on a new system.
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