This is somewhat similar to the Obamacare subsidies, but individuals would not be subject to income limits, would not be required to purchase insurance through an exchange, and could purchase a wider variety of plans, including low-cost, low-benefit “mini-med” plans that have largely been phased out under Obamacare.
Advertisement
House Speaker Paul Ryan is promising a simpler tax code with lower rates for both families and businesses as he unveils the sixth and last installment of his “Better Way” campaign agenda for House Republicans.
“This isn’t a return to the pre-Obamacare status quo”, the new healthcare outline says.
Principle five involves halting the incredibly irresponsible behavior of the President and his congressional accomplices concerning Medicare: “Obamacare raided more than $800 billion from the program and beneficiaries it serves and used the funds to finance the law’s open-ended expansion of entitlements”. This is a new approach.
Their proposal, part of broader effort by House Speaker Paul Ryan to offer a Republican agenda ahead of the November 8 elections, is conservatives’ latest bid to “repeal and replace” the 2010 law.
Rather than showcasing the party’s seriousness about policy, Ryan’s plan may reinforce widespread skepticism about the GOP’s interest in tackling complex healthcare policy.
In January 2011, just days after the new Congress convened, GOP lawmakers unanimously backed a 12-point resolution that directed House committees to develop “legislation proposing changes to the existing law”. “We’re saying, don’t force people to buy insurance”. All you need is for Trump to sign the bills Congress sends.
Ryan’s plan is a “roadmap” for how the Republicans would replace the Affordable Care Act, as one Republican aide described it, providing background to reporters. Ryan calls it “A Better Way”, since everything in Washington must have a marketing-speak name.
Had Democrats been able to get a vote on a gun proposal on an upcoming appropriations bill, it’s possible this entire state of affairs could have been avoided – though it’s unlikely Ryan sees it that way.
For people who do not get insurance through their jobs, the Republican plan would establish a refundable tax credit. But the House GOP plan would not link the tax credit to people’s incomes, as the current law does, potentially leaving lower-income consumers with less help to purchase insurance. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 20 million more Americans have health insurance. The major questions all concern how much money Republicans would be willing to spend to make their system work, since that will determine the kind of insurance Americans will find affordable, and whether anybody would actually order this particular hodgepodge off the menu.
House Republicans’ proposed alternative to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is promising but doesn’t give USA employers everything they need, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said. Obamacare apologists are already making the false charge that the plan wouldn’t cover patients with pre-existing conditions. By spurring innovation and breaking down unnecessary barriers, our plan brings the current electronic health system into the 21st century, giving patients the flexibility needed to seek out care when and where they want it.
The Republican plan says the prohibition on denials of coverage for pre-existing conditions would continue, as would the ban on “recissions”, where insurance companies drop coverage after healthy people suffer serious maladies. “Those protections are in place for a reason”.
House Republicans avoided removing Democrats at the height of the sit-in – a move that would have been a political disaster as the protest was streamed live via social media on national television – with their cool and swift parliamentary maneuvering.
Advertisement
It is not clear when that might happen.
