Budget office: Senate health bill adds 22 million uninsured
“Because nongroup insurance would pay for a smaller average share of benefits under this legislation, most people purchasing it would have higher out-of-pocket spending on health care than under current law”, CBO said. “States are ultimately going to have to ration [their allotment] and say, ‘Well, we only get so much from Medicaid, therefore we can not insure more disabled people, more elderly people.’ It is frightening for those on low income”, Mosman said. The House’s American Health Care Act was expected to cost 23 million Americans health coverage by the end of ten years. And President Donald Trump himself called the House bill “mean” – though he’s lent his support to the Senate version and is lobbying for passage. Though the bill would leave millions without health insurance, it would “reduce the cumulative federal deficit over the 2017-2026 period for $321 billion”.
The newest plan would bar people from getting insurance for six months if they had a lapse in coverage for 63 days or more in the previous year.
He acknowledged the bill has critics: “Some people have been more public about concerns but said they want to get to yes”.
Obamacare: Requires insurers to provide coverage for 10 essential health care needs, like ambulatory services, emergency services, mental health and substance disorder services and pregnancy care.
Similarly, the demand for insurance among employees is greater under current law because some employees want employment-based coverage so that they can avoid paying the individual mandate penalty.
House GOP bill: Eliminates most Obamacare taxes, such as the 3.8 percent tax on investment income.
CBO also estimated that about half the population would be affected by the GOP plan’s extensive waivers, which let states change what coverage insurers are required to offer.
McConnell has said he’s willing to make changes to win support, and in the week ahead, plenty of backroom bargaining is expected. Given these numbers and the fact that the GOP is playing with a fairly narrow margin of error―they can afford to lose no more than two votes, and ostensibly lost one Saturday in Nevada Sen, Dean Heller―it wouldn’t be a shock to see McConnell change course and push the vote back until after the July 4 recess. “I don’t have – but I know those individuals and I think several others”.
Vice President Mike Pence invited four GOP senators to dinner Tuesday to discuss the bill, his office said: Lee and Sens. Both senators are rare supporters of the organization within the GOP. House Republicans weathered a similar beating and rallied to pass their version, so it is much too early to write a political epitaph. John Cornyn has defended the bill and junior Sen. Johnson spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. “Capito, Sen. Johnson”, Spicer said.
Heller got an opponent for next year when first-year Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen announced this week she would seek his Senate seat.
Asked about the bill’s impact on Medicaid insurance coverage for lower-income Iowans, Ernst said, “I wouldn’t say they are losing it”.
The Democrats, Trump ranted on Twitter Monday, “have no policies or ideas”. All they do is delay and complain. Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is one of the 2010 law’s most popular provisions.
Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said Sunday that seven to eight additional senators were troubled by provisions in the Senate bill, which she said could cut Medicaid for the poor even more than the House version.
The report released Monday reviews the Better Care Reconciliation Act, Mitch McConnell’s secretly concocted remix of the House’s American Health Care Act. Of course, if we did that the millionaires wouldn’t get their tax cut.
It would also phase out extra federal money that law is providing to 31 states to expand Medicaid to additional low-income earners. And it would put annual caps on overall Medicaid money the government until now has automatically paid states, whatever the costs.