AHCA contains many important reforms, but it risks throwing millions of low-income Americans off of their health insurance plans. Senate Republicans can fix this—but only if they prioritize sound health care policy over short-term messaging. Improvements to the health care system need to do four things: (1) establish a functioning individual health insurance market by replacing Obamacare’s exchanges; (2) gradually raise Medicare’s eligibility age for future retirees so that more people in their sixties would buy individual coverage that is subsidized where needed; (3) gradually migrate certain populations out of Medicaid and into the individual market; (4) address the grab-bag of other health-reform problems like medical malpractice, hospital consolidation, drug pricing, and veterans’ health care.
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Senate Republicans said Thursday they won’t vote on the House-passed bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, but will write their own legislation instead.
A Senate proposal is now being developed by a 12-member working group. It will attempt to incorporate elements of the House bill, senators said, but will not take up the House bill as a starting point and change it through the amendment process.
“The safest thing to say is there will be a Senate bill, but it will look at what the House has done and see how much of that we can incorporate in a product that works for us in reconciliation,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
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This summary from the Kaiser Family Foundation describes key provisions of H.R. 1628, including: 1. Repeal ACA mandates, standards for health plan actuarial values, and premium and cost sharing subsidies; 2. Modify ACA premium tax credits for 2018-2019; 3. Retain private market rules; 4. Retain health insurance marketplaces, annual Open Enrollment periods, and special enrollment periods; 5. Impose late enrollment penalty for people who don’t stay continuously covered; 6. Establish State Patient and State Stability Fund with federal funding of $130 billion over 9 years, and additional funding of $8 billion over 5 years for states that elect community rating waivers; 7. Encourage use of Health Savings Accounts; 8. Convert federal Medicaid funding to a per capita allotment.
Republicans finally hit a home run with a 217-213 vote Thursday to pass a health care bill that will help millions of struggling Americans. They proved they can govern. Yet one of Republicans’ most notable successes is so far getting too little recognition. GOP negotiators embraced the only model that can ultimately see this bill successfully to President Trump’s desk: states’ rights. The compromise is far from perfect—concocted, as it was, under pressure, and with dozens of competing interests in the room. The Senate offers Republicans an opportunity to do much better by building on the idea’s model of states’ rights.
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In a major victory for President Donald Trump, the House has voted to dismantle the pillars of the Affordable Care Act and make sweeping changes to the nation’s health care system.
If a house is on fire, you do not wait for it to burn to the ground before trying to save the family trapped inside. The situation we face today with Obamacare is no different: It is on the verge of collapse, buckling under the weight of its own toxic mix of mandates and regulations, and many of our fellow Americans are trapped inside.
This crisis will not resolve itself — it is only getting worse, and America’s families can’t wait any longer. Do we have the courage to do what’s right for the American people?
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Against the odds, House Republicans have regained momentum on health-care reform, and they’re nearing a majority coalition. While there may be more swerves before a vote, they ought to appreciate the importance of demonstrating that a center-right Congress—working with President Trump —can govern.
There are still holdouts and others are undecided in the GOP’s moderate and conservative wings, but their differences are narrowing. More members are also recognizing their political mistake in trashing the original ObamaCare repeal and replace bill.
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The MacArthur amendment focuses on an idea that’s core to Republicans’ DNA: federalism. That’s a positive step forward. But what still seems to be lacking is a strategic roadmap for what Congress and the Administration should be trying to achieve. By laying out this roadmap, the Administration can bridge the gap between Republican moderates and conservatives, and possibly open up a much-needed dialogue with centrist Democrats.
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The Republican predicament is illustrated in the cultural response to a monologue by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel who, through tears, made an impassioned plea to President Donald Trump and the GOP not to decrease public funding for or access to health insurance.
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A pair of moderate Republicans who’d been holdouts against the GOP health care bill said Wednesday they were now backing the high-profile legislation after winning President Donald Trump’s support for their proposal for reviving the languishing measure.
The conversions of Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Billy Long, R-Mo., could breathe new life into the sagging Republican push to deliver their long-standing promise repeal former President Obama’s health care overhaul. Upton and others said they believed the House could pass the legislation Thursday.
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