No Preexisting Condition? Insured At Work? You’d Still Feel Impact Of New GOP Health Plan.
The legislation passed by the House allows states to determine what essential health benefits insurers must cover, such as maternity care. People with employee-sponsored health care will also lose protections that limit out-of-pocket costs for catastrophic illnesses
Stat:
Think You're Not Affected By The GOP Health Bill? Think Again
The GOP’s proposal to let states define on their own which benefits all insurance plans must cover — prescription drugs? hospitalizations? childhood vaccinations? mental health? — would fundamentally reshape insurance for millions of Americans. It would likely drive down premiums, as plans with skimpier coverage would spring up in states which granted more flexibility. But it could drive up costs for individuals, by leaving them responsible for far more out-of-pocket expenses. And this shift wouldn’t just affect people buying insurance on the individual market. It could also affect the more than 156 million people who rely on insurance plans sponsored by their employers. (Ross, 5/4)
The Washington Post:
House Republican Plan Could Raise Health Costs For Pregnant Women And Mothers, Critics Warn
The health-care plan House Republicans passed Thursday opens the door for states to upcharge people with preexisting conditions — including pregnancy, health policy analysts warned. The risk of higher premiums for women of childbearing age arises from the so-called MacArthur amendment — crafted by Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) — which allows states to propose their own “essential benefits” package. (Paquette, 5/5)
The Wall Street Journal:
GOP Health Bill Jeopardizes Out-Of-Pocket Caps In Employer Plans
Many people who obtain health insurance through their employers—about half of the country—could be at risk of losing protections that limit out-of-pocket costs for catastrophic illnesses, due to a little-noticed provision of the House Republican health-care bill, health-policy experts say. (Armour and Hackman, 5/4)
The Associated Press:
GOP Health Care Bill Would Allow Employers To Cap Benefits
The Republican health care plan that passed the House on Thursday targeted a key protection for Americans who get their health insurance through work. It would allow health insurance companies to impose lifetime and annual caps on benefits for those who get coverage through a large-employer plan. Former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul banned insurers from imposing such caps, and public opinion surveys have shown that prohibition was popular. (Mulvihill, 5/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
Assessing The Impact Of The House GOP Health Bill
The House Republican health bill is driven by one big idea: Insurers and markets, rather than government, should be empowered to find ways to provide health insurance to a broad set of people at affordable prices. The bill that narrowly passed the House on Thursday creates a mechanism to free insurers to sell a wider variety of products—including less-comprehensive plans now barred by law—and to price them in new ways, potentially raising premiums for older and sicker Americans. (Armour, 5/4)
Reuters:
Republican Health Bill Stirs Fear In Opioid-Wracked West Virginia
Debra Bright said she battled for years with mental illness and addiction to pain pills and other drugs that were all too easy to find where she lives in West Virginia, one of the states hardest hit by the country's opiate epidemic. Now Bright, 42, fears the bill passed on Thursday by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to repeal Obamacare will roll back the Medicaid insurance coverage that has enabled her to get drug and mental health treatments she would not have been able to afford otherwise. (Kenning, 5/4)
Meanwhile, a provision in the bill takes aim at Planned Parenthood, and The Washington Post fact checks House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's claim that no one will lose their Medicaid —
The Washington Post:
Congressional Health-Care Bill ‘Defunds’ Planned Parenthood
The health-care bill passed by the House brought Republicans closer to their goal of erasing Obamacare from the books. But it also revived another long- cherished aspiration: cutting off the flow of federal funds to Planned Parenthood. A provision in the bill temporarily blocks the 100-year-old nonprofit women’s health organization and abortion provider from participating in the Medicaid program. If enacted, it would deal a devastating blow to an organization that provides reproductive services and other health care to 2.5 million people annually. (Somashekhar and Cunningham, 5/4)
The Washington Post:
Kevin McCarthy’s Claim That ‘Nobody On Medicaid Is Going To Be Taken Away’
Before the House narrowly approved the Republican bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, McCarthy defended it in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash after she noted that Democrats paid a price at the polls for passing Obamacare. She wondered whether Republicans are “going to face that very same buzz saw for taking a benefit away.” McCarthy responded, “We’re not taking a benefit away. Nobody on Medicaid is going to be taken away.” Considering that the American Health Care Act would reduce anticipated Medicaid outlays by $880 billion, or 25 percent, over the next 10 years, what is he talking about? (Kessler, 5/5)
