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Senate Republicans' claim of saving individual health insurance markets could prove hollow
Source: Washington Post
Senate Republicans’ claim of saving individual health insurance markets could prove hollow
By Amy Goldstein June 22 at 8:16 PM
Republicans have vowed for months to undo the Affordable Care Act and stave off the collapse of the nation’s most fragile health insurance markets, which serve people who buy coverage on their own. In the Senate, that turns out to be a short-term goal.
Legislation that the Senate’s GOP leaders finally disclosed on Thursday would keep billions of dollars flowing — but only for two years — to health plans that have been begging for continued help with the expense of millions of lower-income customers in ACA insurance marketplaces. After 2019, the payments would stop.
And the cutoff of those payments would coincide with the end of subsidies that help the vast majority of people with ACA health plans afford their premiums. The subsidies would be replaced with smaller tax credits with clear winners and losers. The new credits would not reach as many middle-income Americans, and although they would be available for the first time to people below the poverty line, the amounts could be too small to be useful.
Taken together, these and other features of the Better Care Reconciliation Act could drive prices up after a few years for people who buy individual insurance — a core group the ACA is designed to help. After the next three years, it also would begin a sharp downward path in federal support for Medicaid, the cornerstone of the nation’s health-care safety net for the past half-century.
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By Amy Goldstein June 22 at 8:16 PM
Republicans have vowed for months to undo the Affordable Care Act and stave off the collapse of the nation’s most fragile health insurance markets, which serve people who buy coverage on their own. In the Senate, that turns out to be a short-term goal.
Legislation that the Senate’s GOP leaders finally disclosed on Thursday would keep billions of dollars flowing — but only for two years — to health plans that have been begging for continued help with the expense of millions of lower-income customers in ACA insurance marketplaces. After 2019, the payments would stop.
And the cutoff of those payments would coincide with the end of subsidies that help the vast majority of people with ACA health plans afford their premiums. The subsidies would be replaced with smaller tax credits with clear winners and losers. The new credits would not reach as many middle-income Americans, and although they would be available for the first time to people below the poverty line, the amounts could be too small to be useful.
Taken together, these and other features of the Better Care Reconciliation Act could drive prices up after a few years for people who buy individual insurance — a core group the ACA is designed to help. After the next three years, it also would begin a sharp downward path in federal support for Medicaid, the cornerstone of the nation’s health-care safety net for the past half-century.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/senate-republicans-claim-of-saving-individual-health-insurance-markets-could-prove-hollow/2017/06/22/bd81394e-5758-11e7-b38e-35fd8e0c288f_story.html
