The Future of Obamacare

The Future of Obamacare (By Michael Roth)

It has been two months after the election. Many people have questions regarding the future of Obamacare. Below are excerpts from In the Know December 2016 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois which summarize Blue Cross Blue Shield’s (BCBS) current assessments.

The Future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA): Possible Directions Emerge

More likely, changes will come piecemeal, through a combination of executive and regulatory actions and legislation. States may also take executive, regulatory or legislative action…

Who will be in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the Trump administration? What will happen to the ACA?

Parts of the ACA, like the individual mandate, premium subsidies and the ban on denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions (known as guaranteed issue) were designed to work in concert… In the event the individual mandate or premium subsidies were eliminated, one idea is to create incentives that encourage consumers to purchase coverage when they are not immediately in need of health care. This is aimed at populating insurance risk pools with relatively healthy people and stabilizing the market.

Republican proposals, including a previous bill called the Empowering Patients Act

introduced in 2015 by HHS nominee Price, ban the use of pre-existing conditions in coverage and premium determinations for consumers who have maintained continuous health coverage.

How might the Trump administration approach changing ACA?

… federal agencies may take a “non-enforcement” policy on penalties for violations of the law, such as the tax penalty for individuals who do not maintain insurance coverage. The administration could simply revise, replace or withdraw current guidance or rewrite existing regulations by providing notice of changes and allowing for public comments.

Republicans have suggested immediately moving a budget resolution to allow for a reconciliation bill in Congress as soon as the 115th Congress is sworn-in on Jan. 3. A budget resolution is the first step in the budget process. It too only requires a simple majority for passage and is not signed into law by the President. Timing of a reconciliation bill with possible changes to the ACA is still uncertain, but it could move through Congress within the first two months of the new Congress.

If there are changes to the ACA, when will the changes happen?

Republicans seem to want to ease potential disruptions. They’ve said repeal plans will likely include a transition period and/or sunsets for changes, that would take effect years in the future. In a prior unsuccessful reconciliation effort in 2015, Republicans set the repeal of the Medicaid expansion and premium subsidies at two years after the passage of the bill…

What policy proposals have Trump’s transition team and Congress introduced, and how do they align with the positions of the insurance industry?

The Trump campaign released a high-level proposal on reforming the healthcare industry…And while Trump has advocated repeal of the ACA, he has supported retaining the prohibition on pre-existing condition limitations and allowing children to remain on their parent’s policy up to age 26.

Florida Health Connector is a local agency servicing the 30A Community. Contact Michael Roth at 850-899-7003.