News: ACA, Publications,etc.

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On April 13, 2017 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule  … that reduces ...2018 open enrollment period from three months (November 1, 2017–January 31, 2018) to 45 days (November 1, 2017–December 15, 2017) to “reduce opportunities for adverse selection.”

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By Alan Fram and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar ASSOCIATED PRESS  MARCH 13, 2017

WASHINGTON — Nonpartisan analysts project that 14 million people would lose coverage next year under the House bill dismantling former President Barack Obama’s health care law. The estimate is a blow to Republicans.  Monday’s estimate by the Congressional Budget Office says there would be 24 million more people uninsured by 2026 than under current law. READ MORE

SUMMARY OF REPORT
by Congressional Busget Office & Joint Commission on Taxation

Excerpts from the Chicago Tribune Commentary

• First, the tax credit structure in the bill would not only make health care less affordable for millions, particularly those over 55, it would also destabilize the insurance markets.
• Second, the bill drops the individual mandate. About as unpopular as vegetables are with my kids, the mandate for individuals to buy insurance nevertheless keeps premiums lower for everyone.
• the bill would effectively end the popular and largely bipartisan Medicaid expansion created by the ACA, which extended care to millions of working Americans.
• a permanent capping of the Medicaid program.
• The bill would cut several years from the life of the Medicare trust fund
• using the “rescue” of the individual market to make permanent draconian changes to Medicare and Medicaid while pushing forward a major tax cut for high-income earners, insurers, tanning salons and pharmaceutical companies.

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Andy Slavitt was acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2015 to 2017. His Twitter handle is @aslavitt.

“As Congress begins the process of considering the Republican repeal and replace bill — The American Health Care Act (AHCA) — it is important to remember some recent legislative history to help us prepare for what’s going to happen next. Legislative history is relevant because many Republican members of Congress and their staff were not in D.C. in 2003 when Congress, led by Republicans, took up another major health care bill — The Medicare Modernization Act (MMA), of which I played a role as HHS Secretary.”

“Tommy G. Thompson was the 42nd and longest serving Governor of Wisconsin (1987-2001) and the 19th Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for President George W. Bush.”

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