While former President Donald Trump has threatened to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if he wins reelection, the landmark healthcare law would be increasingly difficult to dismantle. In this CNN article, McDermott+Consulting’s Rodney Whitlock says the country is “as close as we’ve been to meeting the aspirational goals of 2010 for the ACA.”
During arguments in a case seeking to eliminate Obamacare, two of the US Supreme Court’s conservative justices signaled they would not strike down the landmark legislation. In a recent article by CNBC, McDermott partner Michael Kimberly discussed the significance of this case and the Court’s upcoming decision.
When passed in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), often called “Obamacare,” had three basic goals: increase access to health insurance, reduce costs and spending, and offer patients stability with respect to their insurance coverage. By offering a subsidy for low- and middle-income Americans to purchase private insurance plans, the ACA was successful in expanding coverage for about 14 million previously uninsured individuals, including those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Gary Scott Davis authored this bylined article about the future of the ACA. “We need to learn from both the strengths and weaknesses of the ACA to build a long-term sustainable approach that promotes access to care, brings insurance coverage within the reach of the many, contains costs, and aligns economic incentives among payors, providers and patients, while improving the nation’s overall level of health,” he wrote.
On Monday March 20, 2017, technical and policy amendments to the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA) were introduced to address concerns by more conservative Republicans. The House just announced they are delaying the vote on the AHCA likely due to the uncertainty that it would pass.
In the presentation “ACA Repeal/Replace Under the Trump Administration,” Susan Nash discusses the implications of President Trump and the GOP’s immediate vow to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was enacted in 2010 by the Obama Administration to reform the health care system in the US. A complete repeal is unlikely since many ACA changes will require a filibuster proof majority vote in the Senate. However, some changes can be made unilaterally through Executive action by Republicans through Budget Reconciliation, a special legislative process created by Congress to allow for expedited voting on bills that directly impact reviews and expenditures.
The presentation also highlights several proposals that the GOP has been working on to replace ACA, the non-enforcement of market reform requirements, the possible outcomes for the Trump Executive Order and the immediate ramifications for the insurance markets and millions of Americans.
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