Senate GOP Health Bill Would End ACA Penalties, Cut Taxes on High Incomes -- 2nd Update
June 22 2017 - 12:30PM
Dow Jones News
By Stephanie Armour
WASHINGTON -- Senate Republican leaders released a health
overhaul Thursday that would undo large parts of the Affordable
Care Act, including its expansion of the Medicaid program for the
poor and disabled and a requirement that most Americans pay a
penalty if they don't have insurance.
The release of the 142-page bill, after its elements had been
closely held by Republican leaders, marks the launch of a
fast-moving process that Republicans hope will culminate in a new
health law's passage before Congress's August recess. But several
Senate Republicans have expressed concerns about the bill's
outlines, and even if the Senate does pass it late next week, as
GOP leaders hope, it would still have to be approved by the House
to become law.
The plan, whose development was overseen by Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), attempts to strike a balance
between the demands of conservative GOP senators who want an
aggressive repeal of the ACA, sometimes called Obamacare, and more
centrist lawmakers eager to retain some aspects of the law.
The bill relies on the 2010 law's current tax credits to provide
subsidies to people who don't get health insurance on the job. But
this legislation would tighten the income eligibility for the
assistance, meaning fewer people would be able to get the
subsidies. The credits would also be less robust than under the
ACA.
Like the House bill, the Senate bill would repeal a 3.8% tax on
investment income retroactively to January 2017 and delay the
repeal of a 0.9% payroll tax until 2023. Both of those taxes only
apply to individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples
making more than $250,000.
The bill also suspends a so-called "Cadillac" tax on generous
employer health benefits through 2025. It would strip federal
funding from Planned Parenthood Federation of America for one year,
and it prohibits tax credits from being used to purchase plans that
offer abortion coverage.
The Senate proposal would cap states' Medicaid funding from
Washington for the first time in the program's history. Instead,
states would be given a choice of the formula used -- "block
grants" or "per capita caps" -- to curb it under the bill. The
phaseout of federal funding for the ACA's Medicaid expansion would
happen more gradually than in the House bill, but the Senate
measure would ultimately make deeper cuts to the program
The Senate measure also would give states leeway to roll back
the ACA's insurance regulations and consumer protections.
Mr. McConnell has set a rapid-fire timeline for passage. An
analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, laying out
the bill's effect on the budget and the number of uninsured, could
come as early as Monday. Republican Senators, some of whom hadn't
seen text of the draft bill until its release, would have a week to
digest it before a possible vote in advance of their July 4
recess.
It would then be taken up by House Republicans, who also are
expected to pursue fast passage.
The CBO report on the House-passed bill, released late last
month, showed it would leave 23 million more people uninsured while
reducing the cumulative federal deficit by $119 billion in the next
decade compared with current law.
Democrats have worried for weeks that the Senate bill would wind
back more unpopular parts of the House bill and that Republicans
could pass it in the upper chamber by arguing they had made the
bill better. They said Thursday morning they believed the Senate
bill was no improvement. "The House and Senate bills should be
known as 'mean' and 'meaner,' " said Ron Wyden (D., Ore.).
In an event in the White House's East Room on Thursday,
President Donald Trump said he hoped the Senate would pass a health
bill "with heart" and said he was pleased with the legislation
unveiled earlier in the day. "A little negotiation but it's gonna
be good," he said.
--Richard Rubin and Rebecca Ballhaus contributed to this
article.
Write to Stephanie Armour at stephanie.armour@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 22, 2017 12:15 ET (16:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.