Posted on 02/24/2017 1:06:42 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Politico reports today that a leaked draft of the GOP’s Obamacare replacement plan shows the House is not fiddling around the edges but moving toward full repeal and replacement of the law.
The legislation would take down the foundation of Obamacare, including the unpopular individual mandate, subsidies based on people’s income, and all of the law’s taxes. It would significantly roll back Medicaid spending and give states money to create high-risk pools for some people with pre-existing conditions. Some elements would be effective right away; others not until 2020.
The replacement plan would have no individual mandate. Instead, there would be a penalty of 30% for those who fail to maintain coverage. So people who wait until they get sick to sign up, as has been happening under Obamacare, will pay more. In place of the subsidies, the new plan would offer people tax credits of $2,000, with people over 60 getting double that amount. As for Medicaid expansion, states would have the option to continue it but federal support would end by 2020.
All of this is still going to cost a lot of money. The plan to cover those costs boils down to something similar to the Cadillac tax:
According to the document, there’s only one single revenue generator to pay for the new tax credits and grants. Republicans are proposing to cap the tax exemption for employer sponsored insurance at the 90th percentile of current premiums. That means benefits beyond that level would be taxed.
And while health care economists on both sides of the aisle favor tax-limits along those lines, politically it’s a hard sell. Both businesses and unions fought the Obamacare counterpart, dubbed the Cadillac tax.
The devil is in the details with proposals like this. The insidious part of the Cadillac tax was that it was designed to gradually ratchet down and eliminate the tax exemption for all employer sponsored insurance. We’ll see whether the GOP proposal has a similar design.
But if the GOP does anything close to what is described above then former Speaker Boehner was wrong when he suggested yesterday that the GOP would only wind up fixing Obamacare rather than repealing and replacing it. Removing the mandate and the subsidies ends the structure of the exchanges. I suspected the GOP might do that and then leave Medicaid expansion in place, but it sounds like they are going to end federal support for that as well. So this is not shaping up to be a repeal in name only.
Politico notes that the document is still preliminary since the GOP is waiting on scoring from the Congressional Budget Office. Depending what that scoring looks like, the shape of the replacement bill could still change significantly.
Leaked? I hope it’s a trap to catch a leaker.
While I would get the federal government completely out of the healthcare industry, this plan is good enough for now.
Is that the same Congressional budget office that scored Obama care in the first place?
The replacement plan would have no individual mandate. Instead, there would be a penalty of 30% for those who fail to maintain coverage.
30% of what?
The individual mandate is dead already. The IRS will not be collecting information about coverage.
This article ain’t right...
“The legislation would take down the foundation of Obamacare, including the unpopular individual mandate,...”
Uhn huh and then you humbly inform us there is in fact an individual mandate:
“Instead, there would be a penalty of 30% for those who fail to maintain coverage. “
I knew back in 2011 when the repukes started talking about 'repeal and replace' obamacare that they were going to screw us over when they got the chance. Thank goodness we have Trump in the White House and not Romney or Jeb!
Agreed. What are they doing designing plans? Presumably keeping mandates such as to cover adults up to age 26 on their parents’ plans without additional cost? Etc. Etc. Where is the interstate competition? Who are they to tell insurance companies how much and for how long they can/should/must charge a premium for those who haven’t maintained consistent coverage?
All this stuff is none of the federal government’s business. And the free market should be able to come up with whatever types of plans are viable and attract customers in the market.
But, if this is the best they can somehow bring themselves to do for now, let’s at least get to this step and then move on with further deregulation in the future.
Click through and read the source article behind it: insurance companies are supposed to charge a 30% surcharge for the first year for new customers who haven’t maintained consistent coverage.
None of the federal government’s business, but their approach to try to deal with making insurers cover pre-existing conditions (again, none of the federal government’s business) without having people therefore only sign up for coverage when they get sick.
Then, the free market could do what it does best....compete for our business. One real nice option I'd like to see is health-care clinic style where people without insurance could choose an inexpensive first-aid option, if that's their choice. To be blunt, those who didn't get insurance and can't afford any more than that risk not getting a medicine they need. Some might feel it's better to take that risk than to be paupers because of health care and health insurance for their whole lives. Some might even decide to live healthier life styles if the responsibility is on them. Some might only get accident insurance. It's their choice.
I don't want the feds controlling my body. That's really what it's all about for some people.
Individual mandate
Givernment Cronyism
Guarantee corporate profits, which ended this year under Obamacare and will return under Trumpcare.
Great...
LEAKER...MCPAIN?.. Grahnasty?...it’s an inside job in our party!
This a deliberate leak by the Administration.
Agreed that I want the govt out of health care. If not, subsidize all of major medical plans. $20,000 deductible per person. If you want anything better you need to purchase yourself on the open market.
Obamacare should be completely killed off and buried. Every last inch of it.
Exactly—the 30% is a mandate, only collected by the insurance companies rather than the IRS.
There needs to be extreme consequences for leaking anything out of this administration. Part of the non-disclosure agreement should be a paragraph stating it is grounds for dismissal and $100,000 fine for leaking secure documents or confidential information.
(The one and only one aspect of the ACA to retain is the ability for those with pre-existing conditions to find some sort of coverage. The rest must ALL go, and NOT be replaced with ObamaCare Lite)
still stinks. lose it all together.
What’s the problem with those who refuse to contribute to the insurance pool being charged more when they show up demanding to use it? The alternatives are pre-existing condition exclusion, the current mandate system, or forcing the rest of us to pay the costs of the irresponsible. Those claims paying pools don’t fill themselves.
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