Republicans Unveil Alternative to ACA
Republican members of the House and Senate unveiled a proposed alternative to theAffordable Care Act. It would eliminate the individual and employer mandate, provide a tax credit to help offset the cost of buying health insurance, and maintain the availability of coverage for those with pre-existing medical conditions.
The proposal, named the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment (CARE) Bill, was submitted by Senate Finance Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Representative Fred Upton (R-MI), Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“Our plan allows patients to make health care decisions for themselves, without a maze mandates, fines and taxes,” said Hatch in a press release. “This plan is achievable, and above all, fiscally sustainable.”
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), an outspoken advocate of the Affordable Care Act, said the GOP proposal “would mean the retraction of health care for millions Americans,” and called the bill a “memo” with few details and no indication of cost.
The House measure’s own language acknowledges that it is short on specifics; it instructs several key House committees, including Ways and Means, to develop legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act with new laws and policies.
Lawmakers backing the CARE proposal said it would reduce federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars and eliminate more than $1 trillion in taxes. All of the taxes introduced by the ACA, including those on medical devices, pharmaceutical drugs and insurance company revenues, would be dropped. The federal and state insurance marketplaces would also be scrapped.
Hatch called the CARE measure “a bold bicameral plan that fully repeals and replaces the healthcare law with reforms that empower patients, not Washington.”
With a nod toward changes made under the ACA , Hatch added, “We agree we can’t return to the status quo of the pre-Obamacare world, so we equip patients with tools that will drive down costs while also ensuring those with pre-existing conditions and the young are protected.”
The CARE proposal would reduce health insurance costs via a refundable to lower- and middle-income families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level, including workers for small businesses.
Under the plan, insurance companies would not be allowed to impose lifetime limits on benefits, but they would not be required to include a specific set of benefits in their plans.
Consumers with pre-existing conditions could not be denied coverage or charged a higher premium. However, this protection would only be available if the consumer had maintained “continuous coverage” for at least 18 months before seeking a new policy.
Age-rating policies would be allowed. Older insureds could be charged up to five times the rate paid by younger people, compared to three times under the ACA . Like the ACA, the plan would allow young people to stay on their parents’ until age 26, but it would allow a state to modify this.
The CARE plan would repeal the option for states to expand Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for low-income people, and would give states more control over their Medicaid programs.
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