If you’ve been trying to figure out where President Trump stands on repairing the Affordable Care Act – good luck. He literally has changed positions in as little as 11 minutes – reporters have clocked it. (Check out this Atlantic piece about how much Trump has flipped back and forth.) The president may well change his position again by the time you read this. Nevertheless… Continue reading
Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Sen. Lindsey Graham
The Graham-Cassidy repeal bill – which essentially would change Medicaid into a per-capita cap – has suddenly come back to life. Republicans are making one more effort to live up to years of campaign pledges to repeal the Affordable Care Act before they run out of time.
The Senate has to vote by Sept. 30 if it wants to pass a repeal bill with just 50 votes. After that, the current budget resolution is no longer in effect, and any legislation would require a bipartisan 60 votes. Continue reading
Photo: Matt Johnson via Flickr
With efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act sidelined, for now, it may be a good time take a closer look at a Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) proposal in case similar attempts to change insurance market regulation resurface when Congress returns from its August break.
Vox’s Dylan Scott has written that any significant reforms to Obamacare will not come until September at the very earliest, although some bipartisan discussion of ways to stabilize the individual market exchanges has begun. My AHCJ colleague Joanne Kenen in a recent blog post outlined various options going forward. Continue reading
The Affordable Care Act last week survived yet another near-death experience – but the story isn’t over.
What’s next, though, is not yet clear. Here are a few possibilities, with the caveat that so much is in flux anything can happen: Continue reading
Photo: Sam Bowman via Flickr
Reconciliation. Vote-a-rama. Budget points of order. What’s going on in the Senate?
The short version is that the Senate is going to spend at least the next few days (and nights) debating bills that would repeal and/or replace the Affordable Care Act.
It will vote on many amendments, from both Republicans and Democrats – some during a lengthy “vote-a-rama” offered by both Republicans and Democrats. And the whole process will be governed by budget reconciliation rules with the Senate Parliamentarian as the referee. Continue reading
