A final push to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act is underway in the US Senate. Today Senators Bill Cassidy & Lindsey Graham along with Senators Heller and Johnson unveiled a revised version of their legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A window of opportunity until September 30 is available for the supporters of the Amendment (for this federal fiscal year).
It’s called the Cassidy-Graham proposal and it’s essentially an Amendment to the Better Care Reconciliation Act that failed awhile back. Here’s a summary of the content of the Bill, it would:
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Eliminate the ACA’s marketplace subsidies and enhanced matching rate for the Medicaid expansion and replace them with a block grant. Block grant funding would be well below current law federal funding for coverage, would not adjust based on need, would disappear altogether after 2026, and could be spent on virtually any health care purpose, with no requirement to offer low- and moderate-income people coverage or financial assistance.
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Convert Medicaid’s current federal-state financial partnership to a per capita cap, which would cap and cut federal Medicaid per-beneficiary funding for seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children.
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Eliminate federal subsidies to purchase individual market coverage;
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Eliminate the ACA’s individual mandate to have insurance or pay a penalty; and
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When the Bill’s block grant period ends in 2026, it would repeal the ACA’s major coverage provisions with no replacement.
At the same time, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is trying to develop a bipartisan health bill that likely would focus on marketplace stability, including assuring that health insurers receive the cost sharing subsidies. Because insurers will soon be setting their 2018 insurance rates, there’s interest in trying to finalize legislation this month, but it is not clear whether an agreement will be reached in the Senate—and then with the House.
Depending on what happens in the next couple of weeks we may issue an Action Alert for our members.