A majority of the public (57 percent) want to see Republicans in Congress work with Democrats to make improvements to the 2010 health care law, while smaller shares say they want to see Republicans in Congress continue working on their own plan to repeal and replace the ACA (21 percent) or move on from health care to work on other priorities (21 percent). However, about half of Republicans and Trump supporters would like to see Republicans in Congress keep working on a plan to repeal the ACA.
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Like the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) or not, it’s impossible to deny that many exchanges — and consumers — are facing down a crisis. According to HHS, the number of participating insurers is down 38 percent this year. Just this month, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield announced it was leaving Nevada’s exchanges, and insurance companies nationwide are struggling with uncertainty over whether the Trump administration will pay out billions in expected federal subsidies.
Most worrisome is that the individual market itself appears to be shrinking, and 2.4 million Americans will have only one available insurance option. Average rate increases are, for the second straight year, expected to be in the double-digit range in 2018.
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Conservatives in the House hope to revive the failed effort to gut the Affordable Care Act with a long-shot drive to force Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to hold a vote to simply repeal the health-care law without a replacement. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus want to seize control of the health-care debate by petitioning Republicans to hold a vote on a version of a repeal bill that passed the House in 2015.
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The collapse of the Senate’s repeal-and-replace effort does not mean that Congress should give up on health reform. Health costs are spiraling upward because of Obamacare. The American people need relief.
Congress must give it to them, even if it has to do so in piecemeal fashion. Together with some strategic executive actions from the Trump administration, a more gradual plan of attack would achieve far more than “skinny” repeal could have hoped to.
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The conservative House Freedom Caucus on Friday is planning a move to try and force a vote on an ObamaCare repeal bill.
A spokeswoman for the group said members plan to file a “discharge petition,” which would force a vote on a repeal bill if it gets signatures from a majority of the House.
The move is usually used to go around leadership and try to bring up a measure to the floor for a vote.
The plan comes as the Freedom Caucus, and some other Republicans, are pushing to keep the repeal effort alive, despite the Senate’s failed vote last month.
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The GOP’s attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act has generated intense opposition and run into repeated roadblocks on Capitol Hill, despite advancing many worthy reforms. The proposals are right to allow individuals without pre-existing conditions to obtain insurance from a freely-competitive market, right to shift able-bodied individuals from Medicaid to the exchanges, and right to restructure Medicaid so that the largest share of its funds is not captured by the wealthiest states that need it least.
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Congressional Republicans plan to use the next four weeks away from Washington making a public case for a sweeping rewrite of the tax code, an ambitious legislative undertaking they hope will heal divisions that opened when the party’s signature health-care bill collapsed. But at home in their districts, they face pressures that could make it hard to focus on taxes.
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With the failure of Republicans’ health care effort, some Senate moderates are looking to prop Obamacare up with additional taxpayer funds. There’s a case to be made for a short-term bailout of Obamacare—but only if it’s accompanied by serious reforms that liberate consumers from the law’s rising health insurance premiums.
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Our American Experiment — After a speech to state legislative leaders in Austin, TX, on August 1, chairman David Avella and Grace-Marie Turner, President of the Galen Institute, talked about the important role for the states in health reform going forward. You’ll enjoy the eight-minute podcast, that concludes with a little-known story about Turner’s early years as a journalist.
Managed Care magazine writes that, “Whether an ACA fix or GOP plans—or neither—prevail, these players are poised to determine what comes next.” Those listed include ObamaCareWatch guest contributors Tom Miller of the American Enterprise Institute, HHS assistant-secretary designate Steve Parente, and Grace-Marie Turner of Galen as well as Andrew Bremberg, White House Domestic Policy Council chief.
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