Sen. Cory Gardner defends Medicaid expansion as GOP reveals Obamacare replacement

During his election campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly promised to repeal Obama’s signature health care legislation; the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010 or the ACA.

In states that expanded Medicaid, people who are eligible can continue to enroll until January 1, 2020, and those states would continue to benefit from the federal government paying a greater share of the health costs of those beneficiaries. It would also roll back the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid. “We dismantle Obamacare’s damaging taxes and mandates so states can deliver quality, affordable options based on what their patient populations need, and workers and families can have the freedom and flexibility to make their own health care choices”.

Under the proposed replacement bill, which House Republicans unveiled March 6, the Cadillac tax would be kept but further delayed until 2025.

The legislation does not entirely remove penalties for Americans who forego health insurance, however; anyone without health coverage for more than 63 days will see a 30-percent price hike on their premiums.

The biggest problem with the AHCA are tax credits that replace a complex web of Obamacare subsidies.

The four senators were split on exactly what proposals would meet their standards, but with 52 Republicans, McConnell would not have enough votes to pass repeal without the support of at least two of them.

He also criticised measures that would block for one year federal funding to Planned Parenthood, an organisation opposed by many in the Republican Party because it provides abortions. Some analysts worry that while this could drive down premiums for people in their twenties, it could increase them for enrollees in their fifties and sixties. This curious line of argument reemerged on Tuesday at a White House press briefing, when the two pieces of legislation-Obamacare and the GOP replacement plan-were prominently displayed alongside each other for the objective of emphasizing the difference in length. That’s good news, but it mainly affects people paying higher income tax rates who aren’t living paycheck to paycheck. The law enabled about 20 million previously uninsured people to get medical insurance. We don’t yet know if this bill will mean fewer people with health insurance.

Ryan (R-Wis.) and his lieutenants are pushing to advance the bill without waiting for an independent analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, which is evaluating how much the legislation will cost and how many Americans may gain or lose coverage under the plan. And he spent part of the day Tuesday strategizing with Republicans on how to move the bill forward.