The House has PASSED the bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. Here’s all the details:
The bill will still have to go through the Senate – there are some debates whether or not it will pass. This legislation is extremely unpopular and some of the most vulnerable republicans are in the Senate. There are also Senate Republicans who are still leaning on a “no” side due to the changes this bill will make regarding Medicaid and pre-existing conditions. (source)
The version of this bill was voted on WITHOUT a CBO score estimating the costs and how many will lose coverage. Republicans shrugged off complaints saying that the previous score was good enough despite there being major revisions. “We already had the Congressional Budget score when we did the main bill. These are amendments that only perfected, do not add costs,” said Rep. David McKinley. (source)
The bill WILL allow children to stay on their parent’s coverage until they are 26 years old, keeping that mandate from the ACA.
The individual mandate will be immediately removed, meaning there will be no tax on those who don’t purchase health care.
However, the Medicaid expansion will be phased out. The coverage expansion will stay in place until 2019 but no new eligible people will be added after that. Those on Medicaid often cycle in and out of the program due to their employment and income situation, meaning that this will lead to a significant drop in coverage because they won’t be able to re-enroll.
Medicaid will also see general cuts and changes. It will change how the federal government reimburses states, states may add work requirements that will further limit access to the programs, and the new option of a “block grant,” will be offered to the states. The block grant will ease limitations on states’ ability to kick people off, charge premiums, and cut benefits for children.
States will be allowed to opt out of provisions that required insurance companies to cover “essential health benefits” and charge everyone the same regardless of their health history.
Those buying insurance on their own will get tax credits based off their age now, rather than their income. Tax credits will increase as recipients get older, and phase them out for individuals making more than $75,000 or families making more than $150,000. (source)
Interestingly enough, the republicans made sure to include a loophole in the bill that exempts members of Congress from losing the provisions currently protected by Obamacare. They are now saying that they will eventually close that loophole but this will come in separate legislation and not offered as part of the American Health Care Act. Fucking cute. (source)
The bill will cut taxes for the wealthy. Under the ACA wealthy Americans saw tax increases to pay for it’s coverage expansion, the AHCA will get rid of those taxes. These tax cuts for the wealthy add up to $883 billion.
Ultimately the winners of the passing will be people who are younger, healthier, and high income, while the losers are those who are older, sicker, and low-income. (source)
Many republicans voted on this without even reading the bill. Amendments were made last night, giving them almost no time to read exactly what the bill will do. Rep. Thomas Garrett even told the news “I don’t think any individual has read the whole bill, that’s why we have staff.” (source)
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