House GOP unveils ACA replacement; ‘Obamacare-lite’?

It took 18 hours for the Ways and Means Committee to pass the Republican Obamacare replacement plan, the American Health Care Act, after Democrats put up a long fight. The Republican replacement plan would still protect patients with pre-existing conditions from discrimination.

Meanwhile, employers are no longer required to extend coverage to their staff – a huge problem when almost 50 percent of Americans get their health insurance through employer plans, which are often less costly because they benefit from bulk price negotiations.

While it now only takes 21 House Republicans to kill the bill or force leadership into changes and several are already pressing leadership to make additional changes, Ryan predicted the bill will ultimately pass.

Many want a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which this bill doesn’t do. Pelosi wants to keep the Obamacare mandates and reduce consumers’ choice of care. In particular, those from states that accepted the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid are anxious about the political impact of throwing thousands of their constituents off their health coverage, which will make for a whole lot of negative news stories and angry voters.

Paul was critical of the House GOP health care effort even before the bill was published.

What’s missing from the news coverage is improvements in the new bill.

The new bill eliminates numerous main parts of Obamacare including the individual mandate, employer mandate, and most taxes. Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said the proposal would threaten jobs, raise health care prices for all Ohioans – particularly older ones – and kick people off the coverage they have. There isn’t one, if you believe much of this week’s commentary. Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers’ political vehicle, came out against it, as did the free-market Club for Growth and the enforcers of right-wing orthodoxy at Heritage Action. This would replace the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits, which are bigger for people with lower incomes and higher insurance costs. It would also offer age-based refundable tax credits, which would be capped at upper-income levels.

Practicing doctors know the truth: Health insurance doesn’t or can’t distinguish between problems (chest pain, fever, blackout) that require an office visit and those (colds, sprains, fatigue) that don’t.

When we talk about the core of Trump’s support, we’re talking largely about white working-class voters. We are hardly ever asked to call Blue Cross Blue Shield or Aetna for a quick quote.

For example, a 50-year-old earning $47,520 annually would pay just $465 for being uninsured for six months under Obamacare. More shopping around means a push for lower prices, encouraging more competition. The Kaiser Family Foundation notes that older adults may actually receive a smallertax benefit under the AHCA than they do under the ACA, though.

The health care law has provided coverage under Medicaid to 194,000 New Jersey residents, tax subsidies to help buy insurance to 205,242 people in the state, and extra help to buy prescription drugs to 211,881 seniors, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. About 70 million Medicaid beneficiaries would be impacted by cuts, as would millions more who now receive subsidies to purchase coverage on state Obamacare exchanges.

This is a step toward the simplification of the provision of health insurance.

Rather than provide matching grants to states to cover anyone who meets eligibility requirements, the federal government would impose what’s known as a per capita cap, providing a fixed amount of money for each beneficiary based on spending in 2016. The best thing about Mr Ryan’s tax credit is that it begins to redress the imbalance. It would also allow states to set their own ratio. This would lower the cost of insurance for young Americans, encouraging them to buy insurance on their own. While young, healthy people could choose to forgo insurance until they need it, if they are willing to incur the penalty, the elderly would see much higher premiums without Obamacare’s subsidies-especially if they end up shunted into higher risk pools.

In particular, the plan to target Planned Parenthood has already generated fierce pushback from Democrats and doubts from some Republicans who have noted that federal funds are already barred from funding abortions and that Planned Parenthood provides routine medical care to millions of American women.

In sum, the bill repeals a vast swath of burdensome rules. It also retains a version of the individual mandate to carry insurance.