Changes to Affordable Care Act may effect entrepreneurs

So, when Sen. Mike Lee and other Republicans demand outright repeal of the Affordable Care Act and return to a “free market”, they’re supporting rampant exploitation by health insurers at our expense. Its true that those Republican policies would begin getting cheaper in 2023 (?!), but that will only happen because those plans are likely to be much skimpier and in terms of coverage might resemble a piece of swiss cheese.

Dismantling the Affordable Care Act has become like political sport in Washington, with Republicans and Democrats duking it out and pundits also in the fray.

But lawmakers aim to do so on Thursday only if they have the votes to pass it, NBC said. How they fare under the GOP health care bill going through Congress is complicated. Carbajal also objected that the legislation would limit access to mental-health treatment that had been guaranteed under the Obamacare law. One leading House conservative said the alterations were insufficient and claimed enough allies to sink the measure, and support among moderates remained uncertain.

“This proposal to end the Medicaid program as we know it would lock Virginia into the very lean and mean program that we have now into perpetuity”, Michael Cassidy, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Institute, a Richmond-based fiscal policy analysis group that focuses on issues that impact low-income and middle-class people, said in an interview earlier this week.

Heller, who faces re-election next year, was asked if he agreed with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, who has expressed opposition. Meadows did not attend the White House meeting.

But in the real world it turned out many people can’t afford to use their Obamacare insurance cards to actually purchase health care because the deductibles are too expensive, or Obamacare’s architects severely limited the kinds of health care plans insurance companies were allowed to offer customers. The bill adds complicated tax issues, health savings accounts, seemingly arbitrary tax credits and other obstacles including the re-institution of rescission, that make having to deal with already debilitating health issues exponentially more complex and hard.

Thirty-one states expanded Medicaid to low-income adults under Obamacare, including 16 states run by Republican governors. The federal government picks up nearly all of the cost, gradually phasing down to a 90 percent share.

When the Kaiser Family Foundation earlier this month did an analysis of the House health plan’s impact, the group used Mobile as its model of a community with high health costs. Thirty-one states have enlarged their Medicaid rolls under the law.

Health secretary Tom Price is prodding divided Republicans to “get together and collaborate” on a health care overhaul GOP leaders can push through the House. “But they also show that President Trump is all-in now” to help win converts. That’s led some conservatives to deride the new bill as “Obamacare-lite” or “Obamacare 2.0”.

When I submitted this column on March 15, the House Obamacare repeal bill still had major problems. Trump’s system calls for a $4,000 credit across the board. By that year, 14 million fewer people would have Medicaid coverage, and program spending would be about 25 percent lower than what’s now projected.

In states that accepted the ACA, there were gains in health care insurance coverage.

GOP Rep. John Katko, from a closely divided district in upstate NY, said late Friday he opposed the measure. “You’ve had a few, like Justin Amash [a Republican congressman representing part of Michigan], come out and say, ‘I’m not voting for it, ‘” he said.

Collins said coverage issues must also be dealt with, citing a report from the Congressional Budget Office that said 14 million people would lose health coverage under the House bill over the next year and 24 million over the next decade.