Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Marketplace Would Be Fundamentally Rocked With Repeal Of Individual Mandate
The Associated Press: 'Obamacare' Mandate Repeal Would Remake Market For Consumers
Millions are expected to forgo coverage if Congress repeals the unpopular requirement that Americans get health insurance, gambling that they won't get sick and boosting premiums for others. The drive by Senate Republicans to undo the coverage requirement under former President Barack Obama's health care law is a sharp break from the idea that everyone should contribute to health care. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/15)
The New York Times: Obamacare, Reliant On Insurance Requirement, Would Crumble Under Senate Tax Bill
Senate Republicans want to eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most people buy health insurance as part of their overhaul of the tax code. Repealing the rule, known as the individual mandate, is a longstanding Republican goal and would allow lawmakers to save hundreds of billions of dollars to help pay for broad tax cuts. (Park, 11/15)
The Washington Post: The GOP Plan To Kill Obamacare’s Least Popular Provision Could Backfire On Some In The Middle Class
The Republican proposal to strike the Affordable Care Act's least popular provision, the requirement that people maintain health coverage or pay a fine, could bring an immediate political victory — but would backfire on upper-middle-class people who buy individual insurance and pay full price for their plans, health policy specialists said. “The market is stable, but you need to define 'stable.' 'Stable' is the insurance companies ramming the rates to holy hell,” said Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates. “That's a catastrophically terrible market. This is a screwed-up market, to the 16th power. But it can continue this way, indefinitely. So, therefore, it's stable." (Johnson, 11/15)
Modern Healthcare: Senate Republicans Likely To Repeal ACA Mandate As Part Of Tax Bill
Senate Republicans have a good chance of passing a repeal of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate as part of their tax cut legislation, even though healthcare industry groups are lobbying hard against it, political observers say. That's because the three GOP senators who scuttled the last repeal-and-replace effort — Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, and Arizona's John McCain — are unlikely to balk at erasing the ACA's least popular feature, especially when the bill would not cut federal Medicaid funding to their states. (Meyer, 11/15)
Politico: How Cotton Brought Obamacare Repeal Back From The Dead
Sen. Tom Cotton was about to enter the White House early this month to discuss immigration policy when he got an unexpected call from President Donald Trump to talk about a different topic. For days, the Arkansas senator had been working behind the scenes to convince Republicans that reigniting a battle over repealing Obamacare in the tax fight wasn’t as crazy as it seemed. But Trump, still smarting from GOP’s failures to dismantle the law whom Cotton had first pitched on the idea four days prior, needed little persuading. (Kim and Haberkorn, 11/15)
Politico: Dems Seize On GOP’s Obamacare Attack To Awaken The Left On Taxes
Senate Republicans’ decision to strike at Obamacare in their tax legislation may be just what Democrats and progressive organizers need to rally an otherwise distracted base. The liberal activists who besieged the GOP’s health bill have yet to rise up as fiercely against the tax plan. They haven’t been helped with headlines dominated by the Roy Moore scandal and a Russia probe drawing closer to President Donald Trump. (Schor, 11/15)
The Washington Post Fact Checker: Schumer’s Claim That The GOP Is ‘Kicking 13 Million People Off Health Insurance’
In a last-minute switch to the Senate version of the GOP tax plan, lawmakers added a repeal of the individual mandate embedded in the Affordable Care Act. Schumer’s comment equates the health-care move with accusations that the tax bill is tilted toward the wealthy. The requirement that Americans maintain health coverage or pay a fine is one of the least popular provisions of Obamacare. But it is a key element of the law — one of three legs of the “stool” holding up the law. The two other legs are tax subsidies that make insurance affordable and a prohibition on insurance companies from denying coverage or raising premiums based on a preexisting condition. (Kessler, 11/16)
The Hill: Mandate Repeal Sparks Fears Of Premium Hikes
The move by Senate Republicans to repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate could plunge insurance markets into uncertainty, leading to premium hikes or insurers dropping out of the market, experts say. The mandate requires most people to either have health insurance or pay a fine. It was designed to ensure that people don’t wait until they are sick to buy health insurance, since ObamaCare also bars insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. (Sullivan, 11/16)
The Hill: GOP Senator: ObamaCare Mandate A 'Tax On The Poor And Working Class'
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) called the ObamaCare individual mandate a "tax on the poor and working class" during an interview on Wednesday, one day after Senate Republicans announced they would include a repeal of the mandate in their tax-reform legislation. "The fact of the matter is that the individual mandate is a tax on the poor and working class," Scott said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show." (Manchester, 11/15)
The Tennessean: Sen. Lamar Alexander Backs GOP Plan To Repeal Obamacare Mandate As Part Of Tax Reform
Sen. Lamar Alexander said Wednesday he supports the Senate GOP’s tax-reform bill and has no problem with it including a provision to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that everyone buy health insurance. Tying repeal of the so-called individual mandate to the tax-reform measure could cost Alexander Democratic support for a separate bipartisan bill that he negotiated with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray to stabilize Obamacare’s individual health insurance markets in the short term. (Collins, 11/15)
Bloomberg: Health Care For Millions At Risk As Tax Writers Look For Revenue
The Republican tax plans are suddenly looking a lot more like health-care bills, with provisions that may affect coverage and increase medical expenses for millions of families. The House version of the tax bill, which President Donald Trump endorsed on Tuesday, would end a deduction that allows families of disabled children and elderly people to write off large medical expenses. The Senate plan would repeal the Obamacare requirement that most Americans carry insurance, a move that insurers promise would raise premiums in the nationwide individual insurance market. (Olorunnipa and Edney, 11/16)
