Second AHCA vote underway: Update - Vote Done; Exemption denied; ACHA passed in the House 217 - 213

[tru_m.a.c]

Bloomberg: Obamacare Premiums Rise As Insurers Fret Over Law’s Shaky Future
Health insurers are asking for sharp increases in the cost of their Obamacare plans next year, thanks to instability in the law’s coverage markets that’s been compounded by the Trump administration. In Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut -- the first states to make filings public -- premiums for Affordable Care Act plans will rise more than 20 percent on average, according to data compiled by ACASignups.net and Bloomberg. The increases follow years of rising premiums under ex-President Barack Obama. (Tracer and Edney, 5/9)

The CT Mirror: Health Insurers Seek Big Rate Hikes, Blame Obamacare’s Uncertain Future
The state’s health insurers are asking for sizeable rate increases for individual and small-business policies sold in 2018, led by Anthem, which is seeking an average 33.8 percent increase on plans covering individuals and their families. The insurers blamed the size of their rate hikes in large part on the unsteady future of the Affordable Care Act, which congressional Republicans are attempting to repeal. (Radelat, 5/8)


Indianapolis Star: More Than Half Of Indiana's Alternative Medicaid Recipients Didn't Make Payment Required For Top Service
More than half the low-income people who qualified for Indiana’s alternative Medicaid program failed to make a monthly payment required for the top tier of service — a key feature of the program Vice President Mike Pence insisted on as a condition to expanding the health care program when he was Indiana’s governor. That's according to a new evaluation of the Healthy Indiana Plan, a program designed by Indiana health care consultant Seema Verma, who — as the new administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — can now grant other states permission to impose similar monthly fees. (Groppe, 5/8)

AL.com: Some Medicaid Mothers Must Wait Weeks, Months Before First Doctor's Visit
[A]ccording to doctors and patients, Alabama's complex maternity Medicaid process can mean some moms don't get their first OBGYN appointment until they're well into their second trimester, 13 or more weeks into their pregnancies. ... Medicaid covers more than half of all births in Alabama -- 52.6 percent. And while most obstetricians prefer to see their patients for their initial exam when they are eight weeks pregnant -- or about four weeks after a woman would get a positive result on an at-home pregnancy test -- Alabama Medicaid has more than six weeks to approve an application once it's filed. At the same time, the percentage of Alabama women receiving adequate prenatal care has dropped in recent decades, from 79 percent in 2003 to 75 percent in 2015, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. (Vollers, 5/8)

Billings (Mont.) Gazette: A Plan To Take Montana Care Backward
In 2013, 20 percent of Montanans under age 65 had no health insurance — no private or government coverage. With marketplace subsidies from the Affordable Care Act, that uninsured number dropped to 15 percent in 2015. Last summer — just six months after Montana expanded Medicaid under the ACA to all very low income adults — the state’s uninsured rate dipped to 7 percent and has kept inching lower. Montana has benefited greatly from the ACA, and thus has more to lose from the American Health Care Act. (5/8)

Los Angeles Times: Senate Republicans Couldn't Bother To Find A Single Woman To Help Overhaul Health Care
I know there aren’t that many women in the U.S. Senate. Just 21 of the 100 U.S. senators are female, and probably some of them had other plans. But still, couldn’t Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) find one woman to join the 13 men on his Obamacare overhaul posse? Just one? True, most of the women in the Senate are Democrats and would probably be annoying about pap smears, mammograms and Planned Parenthood. They might also point out that the Republican’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will invariably affect women. Women have a higher rate of poverty than men. (Mariel Garza, 5/9)

 

[tru_m.a.c]

The Baltimore Sun: Insuring The Uninsurable: GOP Health Plan Draws On High-Risk Pool Used In Maryland
But as the pools draw new attention in Washington, those who managed and used the Maryland program say the state's experience shows the pros and cons of the approach. A high-risk pool amounts to a separate insurance system for the sickest patients. Maryland's program, which received praise from members of both political parties, will likely inform the debate over the future of health insurance as the GOP's Obamacare repeal effort moves to the Senate. (Cohn and Fritze, 5/6)

Denver Post: GOP's Health Care Bill Features High-Risk Pools, Which Have Colorado History
People enrolled in the pool [former insurance commissioner Marcy] Morrison oversaw, which was called CoverColorado, paid premiums that were as much as 50 percent higher than market average. Taken together, though, those premiums were only enough to pay for about half of CoverColorado’s expenses. Contributions from the state’s unclaimed property fund and charges passed on to every other health insurance customer in the state made up the rest. To keep costs down, CoverColorado imposed a $1 million lifetime benefit cap on enrollees and made people wait several months after joining before the plan would pay for expenses relating to a pre-existing condition. And Morrison said the plan still couldn’t accommodate everybody who wanted to join. (Ingold, 5/5)

The Hill: Kasich: Republicans' Plan For High-Risk Pools 'Ridiculous'
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) mocked House Republicans’ ObamaCare repeal bill, saying its plan to establish high-risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions is “ridiculous.” “The business of these [high]-risk pools, they are not funded, $8 billion dollars is not enough to fund,” Kasich said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sunday morning, laughing. “It’s ridiculous.” (Carter, 5/7)

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Here are the five key players to watch.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)

Alexander is the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He’s also in a working group created to hash out a compromise among Republicans on healthcare.

The veteran senator, who left leadership in 2011 because he wanted to focus more on policy, has been working for weeks on a reform bill that could pass the Senate on a GOP vote through special budget rules that would prevent a Democratic filibuster.
He laid out his priorities in a floor speech on Thursday.

They include helping people living in counties slated to have zero insurers on the ObamaCare exchanges next year; lowering premiums; “gradually” transferring to states more flexibility in the administrations of their Medicaid programs — without pulling the rug out from people who got coverage through ObamaCare’s expansion; and making sure people with pre-existing conditions have access to health insurance.

Alexander has a vetted interested in pushing reform through the upper chamber: 16 counties in his home state currently have no insurers on the exchanges for 2018.

That means people living there will have no way to use their subsidies unless Congress acts or another insurer steps in.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)

Collins, perhaps the most centrist GOP member of the Senate, says she won’t support a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood.

“I don’t think it makes sense to have the defunding of Planned Parenthood linked to this issue at all,” Collins told reporters earlier this year.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) is the other Republican who has taken this position.

Other Republicans are likely to demand that Planned Parenthood funding be cut, creating a difficult issue for GOP leaders.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can only afford two defections on the bill, with Vice President Pence then breaking a 50-50 tie.

Collins has written her own healthcare plan with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

It would give states the option to keep ObamaCare’s subsidies, mandates and protections for people with pre-existing conditions or to opt into an alternative plan that would provide a uniform tax credit linked to a health savings account to help people afford basic, less comprehensive health insurance plans. Expect her and Cassidy to push for some of those changes.

Collins has also expressed concerns about the tax credits not being enough and how pre-existing conditions will be handled.

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)

Cruz is strongly opposed to ObamaCare and wants nothing more than to see it fully repealed.

He assembled the working group of conservative and moderate members to hash out a compromise.

“We’re going to try to do it in the Senate and I hope we can get it done. My view is failure is not an option,” Cruz said in an interview with a Texas radio station this week.

“We’ve been promising the voters we’d repeal ObamaCare for seven years, and I think if we fail to deliver on that I think the consequences would be catastrophic.”

Cruz has called for the Senate to repeal all of ObamaCare’s insurance regulations, which might not be allowed under the Senate’s budget rules preventing a Democratic filibuster.

It would also be a non-starter for many of his colleagues.

He’s also supported block-granting Medicaid, which is an option in the House bill, as well as expanding health savings accounts and requiring continuous coverage.

Cruz was also critical of the House bill’s refundable tax credits.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky)

Rand Paul hates ObamaCare, but his vote could be a tough one to pick up for McConnell.

Paul wants to get rid of all of ObamaCare’s regulations, like guaranteed coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

His dislikes the House bill’s refundable tax credits to help people buy insurance, which he calls a “subsidy by another name.”

“It’s going to take little bit of work to get me to a yes vote,” Paul said on Fox News Thursday.

“I really want to repeal it. I just don’t want to replace it with ObamaCare lite or another federal program. The programs they put in place will be there forever,” he said, adding that “plussing it up with more federal subsidies — that’s going to make it much more difficult for me.”

It’s unlikely the Senate would pass a bill that doesn’t help people buy insurance, however.

Many senators think that credits are needed and that the ones in the House bill aren’t enough for older and low-income individuals.

This suggests that if Paul sticks to his guns, it will be very hard to win his vote.

Which would making winning over Collins and Murkowski more critical.

Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio)

Portman is from a state that expanded Medicaid, and his governor, John Kasich (R), is an ardent supporter of the expansion.

In March, Portman and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Cory Gardner(Colo.) and Murkowski wrote in a letter to McConnell that they wouldn’t support the House’s treatment of the expansion.

“We are concerned that any poorly implemented or poorly timed change in the current funding structure in Medicaid could result in a reduction in access to life-saving health care services,” they wrote.

The House bill would freeze the expansion in 2020.

Portman told The Hill this week he’d like to see a “longer runway” for reforming Medicaid instead of abruptly capping the program two years from now.

In Portman’s state, at least 700,000 people gained coverage through the expansion.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcar...SatIP1RhO6KLwHbuktGwbAy08E1Iew&_hsmi=51642490

 

[JahFocus CS]

Some of these Republicacs getting a slight wake up call... experience is a much better teacher than debating people with shyt politics sometimes

 

[88m3]

Some of these Republicacs getting a slight wake up call... experience is a much better teacher than debating people with shyt politics sometimes

 

[Red Shield]

Some of these Republicacs getting a slight wake up call... experience is a much better teacher than debating people with shyt politics sometimes

This broad has an annoying voice

 

[tru_m.a.c]

ACA exchange premium rates could rise by an average of 20 percent in Virginia next year

Spoiler

Health insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act’s individual and small group markets in Virginia could cost an average of 20 percent more in 2018, according to initial rate filings with the state’s Bureau of Insurance.

While the rates must be further reviewed by the bureau before they become final, the filings show that almost all insurers offering plans on the exchange expect premiums to increase.

Last year, premium rates on the exchange increased by an average of about 16 percent.

Some plan premiums on the individual market could go see prices nearly triple. Others expect increases as low as 1.7 percent and as high as 20.4 percent.

Only two filings showed a decrease in premium costs over last year: Group Hospitalization and Medical Services, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, which are both selling plans in the small business health options program, or SHOP exchange.

But in addition to higher premiums, Virginia residents will also see sparser options in the ACA marketplace next year.

Four fewer insurers are offering plans on the individual exchange compared to last year, while two have exited the small group exchange. Two of the biggest insurers in the country, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna, pulled out of the individual exchanges.

No new issuers have filed intentions to offer plans on Virginia’s exchange, either. Last year, Aetna and Cigna both decided to participate in Virginia’s ACA market for the first time.

According to the 2016 Employer Health Benefits Survey compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance have not experienced such high rate increases. The average premium for a family plan rose by 3 percent between 2015 and 2016, while there was virtually no increase in the premium for single coverage.

“From what we’ve heard, most of the rates we’ve seen don’t include cost-sharing reductions, so you could be looking — as carriers refile — at an additional increase,” Hathaway said. “Some of the carriers likely did not include that into their initial filings.”

A member of the Bureau of Insurance’s staff confirmed that it is unclear if all the insurers selling plans in Virginia’s ACA markets incorporated the potential loss of cost-sharing reduction payments into their initial rate filings.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, to compensate for the loss of those payments, insurers would need to increase plan premiums by an average of 19 percent across the country. In Virginia, the foundation predicts insurers would need to increase premiums by 17 percent.

ObamaCare uncertainty driving premium hikes

Spoiler

Uncertainty among insurers about how the Trump administration will handle the Affordable Care Act could translate into double-digit premium increases for 2018.

Insurers are beginning to file rate requests with state insurance regulators, and some states could see premium increases of 50 percent or more.

Insurers are worried about how President Trump’s plans for -ObamaCare — particularly whether the requirement for individuals to buy insurance will remain and whether insurer subsidies for covering low-income enrollees will continue.

Insurers also blamed rate increases on an unbalanced risk pool — which means there are too many sick, expensive patients and not enough healthy ones — higher claims for medical care and drugs, and the reinstatement of an -ObamaCare tax on health insurers.

Maryland’s largest health insurer, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, is proposing an average rate increase of more than 50 percent.

In a statement, CareFirst said the “lack of clarity” about whether the individual mandate would be enforced played a “significant role” in its proposed rate increases.

The company is also requesting premium increases of 35 percent in Virginia and 29 percent in Washington, D.C.

Another Maryland insurer, Evergreen Health, is requesting rate increases of 27 percent, blaming uncertainty about -the ObamaCare insurer payments and the enforcement of the individual mandate as the “primary driver.”

In Connecticut, Anthem is requesting an average premium increase of 34 percent for plans on the -ObamaCare exchanges. The state’s other exchange insurer, CTCare, is requesting a 15 percent increase.

In California, insurance commissioner Dave Jones, a Democrat, asked insurers to file two sets of rates: “Trump rates” and “ACA rates” in light of the “market instability created by President Trump’s continued undermining of the Affordable Care Act,” his office said in a press release.

Rural Shoppers Face Slim Choices, Steep Premiums On Exchanges

Spoiler

In regions with just one insurer, monthly premiums were $451 or higher in half of the silver “benchmark” plans on which premium subsidies are based. In contrast, in areas where six or more insurers offered plans, monthly premiums were much lower for comparable coverage: Half were $270 or less. Premium growth from 2016 to 2017 also varied substantially based on how many insurers participated in a region: Median premium growth was 30 percent in areas with one insurer versus 5 percent in regions with six or more carriers.

“All the problems seem to be very strongly correlated with the size of the population,” said Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, who co-authored the analysis. “If you’ve got a big population, more insurers are coming in to compete for that business.”

The “rating areas” with just one or two insurers were concentrated in the South. Eighty-two percent of the rating areas with just one insurer were located in the South as were 59 percent of regions with two insurers. Regions with six or more insurers were concentrated in the Northeast, with 30 percent of the total, and the Midwest, with 41 percent.

 

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[afterlife2009]

 

[smitty22]

New CBO score about to come out

 

[88m3]

New CBO score about to come out

I heard

 

[88m3]

McConnell: 'I don't know how we get to 50' votes on ObamaCare repeal

 

[ORDER_66]

New CBO score about to come out

What's a cbo score is that like a credit rating?!?

 

[smitty22]

What's a cbo score is that like a credit rating?!?

Congressional Budget Office..

Congressional Budget Office - Wikipedia

 

[ORDER_66]

Congressional Budget Office..

Congressional Budget Office - Wikipedia

Oh ok...