Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Policy Perspectives: The Individual Mandate Fight Goes On - This Time, In A Tax Bill
The New York Times: Why We’re Still Fighting Over The Health Care Mandate
Seven and a half years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and five years after the Supreme Court gave its central provision a stamp of legal approval, America is still fighting over the individual mandate. The debate over the requirement to maintain health coverage or pay a penalty has become a permanent feature of American political life — a debate from which we seemingly cannot escape. (Peter Suderman, 11/15)
Los Angeles Times: Suddenly, The GOP Tax Bill Has Morphed Into An Attack On Your Healthcare
The line going around Washington these days is that the Republicans previously tried to hide a tax cut for the rich in their Obamacare repeal measures; and now they’re hiding an Obamacare repeal inside their tax cut bill. That’s correct. The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday slipped a provision into its tax cut bill that would effectively repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. On the surface, this is a fiscal measure—it would theoretically reduce the federal deficit by $338 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (Michael Hiltzik, 11/15)
The Washington Post: The GOP Is Trading 13 Million People’s Health Care For Corporate Tax Cuts
To finesse the tricky politics and brutal math of tax reform, Senate Republicans say that they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. For Republicans, repeal would be a trifecta: a blow to Obamacare, a money-saver for the federal government and a way to finance a permanent cut to the corporate tax rate. (Nicholas Bagley, 11/15)
The Wall Street Journal: The Appeal Of Mandate Repeal
The House is poised to pass tax reform on Thursday, while Senate Republicans have fortified their draft to include a repeal of ObamaCare’s individual mandate. The latter is being denounced as an attempt to deny Americans health insurance, but Republicans can rebut this falsehood and achieve two policy goals with one reform if they don’t flinch from the debate. (11/15)
Bloomberg: The GOP's Obamacare Threat Is Doubly Painful For Insurers
That's ugly news for insurers and hospitals in at least two ways: Passing such a measure will hurt the individual insurance market. But failure may drag the tax-cut effort down with it, possibly hurting the stock market and leaving companies with higher tax bills. The ACA's mandate is unpopular but necessary. It generates revenue for the federal government via penalty payments. Repeal would only save money and enable larger tax cuts because millions of people would stop buying insurance, reducing government spending on subsidies. (Max Nisen, 11/15)
The Washington Post: Republicans Turn Their Irresponsible Tax Bill Into Monumentally Unwise Social Policy
Republican senators remade their tax bill into an Obamacare repeal bill, announcing Tuesday that they inserted an Obamacare sabotage device into the text. In a stroke, they turned a fiscally irresponsible tax plan into a monumentally unwise piece of social policy that would do much more than widen the deficit. If passed, it would be the most significant health-care shift since the 2010 Affordable Care Act — and in a decidedly negative direction. (11/15)
JAMA Forum: Undermining Health Care Through Tax Reform
One of President Trump’s regular refrains is that Obamacare is failing. Many have taken issue with this assessment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but what seems clear in the wake of a failed attempt to use the legislative process to repeal the ACA is that the Trump administration is doing all it can to sabotage the law. (Andrew B. Bindman, 11/15)
Sacramento Bee: This Is How Health Care Costs Are Stealing Your Raises
How do rising health costs reduce wages? Most full-time workers are paid a combination of wages and benefits. If the cost of benefits goes up, employers have less to pay wages – and the cost of health benefits to employers has been increasing rapidly for many years. (Glenn Melnick, 11/15)
Fox News: We Can't Let Unions Hold Medicaid Funding For Home Health Care Hostage
The state-run program paid for by Medicaid to fund home health-care is a win-win for patients, their families and the taxpayer. The program keeps patients at home, where they are more comfortable and surrounded by loved ones, rather than putting them in nursing homes or other expensive institutions that would cost Medicaid far more. But unfortunately, some states are diverting millions of these Medicaid dollars from home health-care to labor unions. (Andy Puzder, 11/16)
