Perspectives: The GOP’s Intraparty Scramble Toward A Health-Plan Compromise; And What About Those Subsidies?
Opinion writers take on various aspects of the current debate surrounding the future of the Affordable Care Act and how Republican efforts to repeal and replace it are unfolding.
The Wall Street Journal:
A GOP Health-Care Reprieve?
Republicans have put themselves in a deep hole on ObamaCare, both politically and on the health-market merits, but maybe they’ll grab the rescue line now dangling in front of them. A potential compromise among the House’s contentious GOP factions could begin the climb out. (4/21)
USA Today:
Don't Hold Obamacare Subsidies Hostage: Our View
Ever since House Republicans balked at a plan to end health insurance for 24 million Americans by repealing Obamacare, President Trump has been casting around for alternative strategies. One idea is to take another crack at legislation. To that end, Republicans have spent recent days struggling to craft a plan that both hard-line conservatives and more moderate members could support. Another idea is to sabotage President Obama's signature legislation by blocking funds for cost-sharing subsidies that help lower-income people purchase insurance. (4/23)
USA Today:
Scrap Obamacare Subsidies: Opposing View
President Trump has a new bargaining chip in the drive to repeal and replace Obamacare. He recently expressed willingness to end the law’s “cost-sharing reduction” subsidies — which reimburse insurers for covering out-of-pocket costs like deductibles and co-pays for low-income exchange enrollees — in order to bring Democrats back to the negotiating table. That’s exactly what he should do. (Sally C. Pipes, 4/23)
USA Today:
GOP Health Plan Is Awful And Americans Know It
President Trump is in a big rush for House Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act by the time he reaches the 100-day mark on Saturday. This revives what for many Americans has been an agonizing process of watching their access to health care become a political football in the worst tradition of Washington deal-making — secretive drafting, rushed votes, multiple closed-door sessions and minimal debate. (Andy Slavitt, 4/24)
Los Angeles Times:
How Trump And The GOP Are Plotting To Give Big Health Insurers Exactly What They Want
The nation’s biggest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, had a pretty good quarter, judging from the preening by its executives during a conference call with Wall Street analysts this week. The company turned a profit of $2.2 billion on revenue of $48.7 billion for the quarter ended March 30. That was partially the result of the company’s bailing out entirely on Affordable Care Act individual insurance exchanges, on which it was losing money. ... they weren’t shy about proposing changes to the law that they think will make it better. Interestingly, every change they mentioned would make the ACA work a lot better for UnitedHealth, though not for its customers. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/21)
Arizona Republic:
Fix Health Care? Give Us More AHCCCS
Most Arizona counties have just one remaining insurer for the Affordable Care Act. The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) holds the solution to this problem. AHCCCS works and works well, providing health-care services to 1.8 million Arizonans annually. (Victoria Kauzlarich, 4/23)
Columbus Dispatch:
'Mr. Republican' Supported Funding For Health Care
A study published April 12 in the journal Health Affairs reported that states such as Ohio that expanded Medicaid to cover the working poor, an option offered by the Affordable Care Act, “did not experience any significant increase in state-funded expenditures, and there is no evidence that (Medicaid) expansion crowded out funding for other state priorities.” That study, by Harvard’s Benjamin D. Sommers and MIT’s Jonathan Gruber, suggests that Ohio’s Medicaid expansion has been a good deal for Ohio and Ohioans. (Thomas Suddes, 4/23)
