Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Bill Offers Insurers More Funding To Help Stabilize Individual Insurance Market
The Washington Post: Senate Republicans’ Claim Of Saving Individual Health Insurance Markets Could Prove Hollow
Republicans have vowed for months to undo the Affordable Care Act and stave off the collapse of the nation’s most fragile health insurance markets, which serve people who buy coverage on their own. In the Senate, that turns out to be a short-term goal. Legislation that the Senate’s GOP leaders finally disclosed on Thursday would keep billions of dollars flowing — but only for two years — to health plans that have been begging for continued help with the expense of millions of lower-income customers in ACA insurance marketplaces. After 2019, the payments would stop. (Goldstein, 6/22)
Bloomberg: Senate GOP Health Plan Adds Billions To Stabilize Markets, Source Says
Senate Republicans’ proposal to replace Obamacare would provide $50 billion over four years to stabilize insurance exchanges in addition to cost-sharing subsidy payments through 2019, according to a person familiar with the plan. ... It also would provide $62 billion allocated over eight years to a state innovation fund, which can be used for coverage for high-risk patients, reinsurance and other items. (Dennis and Litvan, 6/22)
The Hill: Senate Bill Contains $50B To Stabilize ObamaCare Markets
The Senate Republican healthcare reform bill would appropriate $50 billion over four years to try to stabilize ObamaCare’s exchanges. Republican senators agree that the insurance markets are collapsing because of ObamaCare, but there have been disagreements over whether the markets need to be stabilized before the law is repealed. The stabilization money, combined with the continuation of ObamaCare’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies through 2019, could lead some conservatives to say the bill keeps too much of ObamaCare. (Weixel, 6/22)
USA Today: Senate Health Care Bill: Here's How It Would Affect You
The bill would sunset in two years subsidies for people who purchase insurance on an exchange. Most of the more than 6 million Americans benefiting from the help may not be aware they’re getting it, since the subsidy goes directly to the insurer who then lowers the cost-sharing requirements for a plan. Without the subsidies, insurers would need to raise rates an estimated 20% to make up for the loss, experts have estimated. But the bill also includes funding for states to reduce insurance costs in other ways. (Groppe, 6/22)
The Washington Post: How The GOP Health-Care Bill Would Address One Of Obamacare’s Big Problems — But Could Cause An Even Bigger One
Currently, there's a maximum and a minimum level of income at which a person qualifies for federal help. The Senate bill would remove that minimum, meaning that everyone who makes less than 350 percent of the federal poverty level would qualify for insurance subsidies. That change is aimed at one outcome of Obamacare that nobody — neither critics nor supporters — ever intended. As planned, everyone making less than the minimum required for subsidies would qualify for Medicaid, which the law sought to expand nationwide. But when the Supreme Court gave states more freedom to decide whether they would expand the program, many states didn't. That left a coverage gap in many states and left approximately 2.6 million people in a maddening paradox: They made too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little money to qualify for insurance subsidies. (Johnson, 6/22)
