Author: Kalup Alexander
Republican leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas have promoted the idea that consumers should have a “health care backpack,” which would make it possible to take insurance from job to job or when moving, starting a business or retiring.
Households at the top of the U.S. income ladder would see taxes on their wages and investments drop under the House Republicans' new health-care proposal.
Some large health insurance companies have suffered losses under the Affordable Care Act, leading to a few high-profile exits from the online marketplaces. Humana is just the latest, announcing in January that it will stop offering health insurance on the ACA health exchanges at year’s end.
In his first address to a joint session of Congress — a high-wattage moment to articulate his central goals — President Trump defied expectations he had repeatedly set that he was about to unveil a concrete plan to abolish the Affordable Care Act and steer federal health policy onto a more conservative path.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Democrats to work with Republicans in Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which he claimed, yet again, is a "disaster."
President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will offer details on how he would like to overhaul President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law in a speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.
"2017 is going to be a catastrophic year for Obamacare for patients," said Trump, saying the public health care exchanges are "going to absolutely implode." He cited rising premiums as a factor. Premiums were steadily rising for all insurance policies for years and experts said the hikes for Obamacare were partly due to them initially being priced artificially low.
With President Trump now vowing to put forward a replacement for the Affordable Care Act in March, some California politicians and healthcare advocates are once again promoting the idea of a state-run “single-payer” system that operates like Medicare.
On February 24, 2017, a draft House reconciliation bill was leaked to the media. Although I have not seen any claims that it is not authentic, it is dated February 10 and may not be the most recent draft. I have also not seen any assertion that the Congressional Budget Office has concluded an analysis of the bill and found its budgetary consequences to be acceptable to the bill’s sponsors. The draft is, however, consistent with statements that Republican leadership have recently made about their legislative program. Because the draft is the best information we have about the House Republican leadership’s proposals, I offer a summary of its major provisions.
Like many presidents before him, President Trump is pushing a bold budget proposal. But for a business executive used to getting his way, he is likely to find, as his predecessors did, that final budgets often bear little resemblance to the originals after being run through the shredder on Capitol Hill. Here is a look at some of the main issues hanging over the coming budget and spending fight.