House Republican Bill 1275 has another, catchier name.
The "World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017" - its official title - has been introduced and begins its long slug through the House and Senate before hitting the President’s desk.
Disagreement has arisen across both party lines, and with industry participants. The American Medical Association said the House GOP Bill would "reverse the coverage gains" of Obamacare, and cause millions of people to lose coverage.
As lawmakers wade through the document to make revisions over the coming months, they might notice that the Trump administration’s boast that it has taken away the parts of Obamacare that people do not like, for example, being fined if they do not purchase coverage, is inaccurate. The penalty still applies but this time Americans will pay to their insurance provider, not the government.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer proudly declared the document dedicated 50 pages to detailing how Obamacare would be repealed. He then wheeled out Tom Price, the new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, who pointed to the 900-page Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Above: The part of Trump's new healthcare bill that states its unconventional name
"Notice how thick this is?" he asked reporters, comparing the stack of paper with the Republicans’ new, much slimmer document.
Democrats claim the healthcare replacement plan will not protect the most vulnerable Americans. Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill said Mr Trump’s plan is repeating the same mistakes of Obamacare but "on steroids".
"Jamming bill, no cost estimate, no [Democratic] votes," she wrote on Twitter.
Some Republicans, like Senator Tom Cotton insist Obamacare 2.0 is "moving too quickly", while some of his colleagues say it does not go far enough to help provider competition. Mr Trump said state competition would be addressed in the second and third phase of the roll-out.
Senator Rand Paul, who tried and failed to get hold of the bill while it was guarded by police at Capitol Hill, declared the bill was nothing but "Obamacare-lite".
US Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio has introduced another bill for a "clean repeal" of Obamacare, scrapping all taxes and subsidies of the Affordable Care Act.
On paper, the most popular provisions of Obamacare remain, but the tweaks are in the small print.
It maintains medicaid expansion until 2020 - relied upon by many of Mr Trump’s own supporters - but will institute a cap thereafter on how much states can spend on medicaid. There is no cap at the moment.
The new plan keeps a tax credit system, but changes it to age and income-based instead of being solely dependent on income. This new policy leaves older Americans as the most exposed, as they get more tax credits but there is no cap on what the insurance companies can charge them. Older people were cited to pay three times that of young people under the former government; this will raise to five times under Mr Trump.
Source: www.independent.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment