Republicans finally unveiled the new Senate Healthcare Bill

Republicans finally unveiled the new Senate Healthcare Bill

The Republicans presented to the Senate its version of the bill to reform health care and repeal Obamacare, which has been functioning since 2010. The bill was called the «Better Care Reconciliation Act».

As stated by Mitch McConnell, «we agree that ObamaCare should be abolished. New law, Americans will not have to buy insurance if they don’t need it or they can’t afford.» Instead, Republicans plan to offer benefits that will depend on age and income, to help pay for insurance.

Largely a new document resembles the American Health Care Act, which in may was approved by the House of representatives, but some changes were made. He proposes to limit the funding for one of the Federal public health programs Medicaid and to refuse to support programs on family planning, which was carried out the termination of pregnancy. Exceptions will only be for cases of rape and incest. It is important to note that the last question is the cornerstone of the reform, because the Democrats are against refusal of family planning programmes.

In addition the bill proposes to abolish many of the taxes and fees for wealthy people. Untouched remains the Cadillac Tax that will surely delight medical device manufacturers, investors, etc.

The bill proposes to repeal various benefits, including subsidization of childbirth, mental health, and emergency medical care.

The bill also allows insurance companies to charge older people 5 times more than the young (by the way, the current system provides for a ratio of 3 to 1).

One of the fundamental changes is the change in the system of financing of health in individual States. If now it is increasing with the increasing need, the new bill proposes to allocate a specific amount for each state or to offset the cost after the fact. This means that funding will be reduced by billions of dollars.

By 2020, the bill proposes to abolish subsidies for joint financing, which helps Americans with low incomes to pay for their insurance. At the same time, the document gives unlimited freedom to the States to develop their own health programs.

Also important change proposed by the bill is to reduce the maximum allowable family income level required to obtain insurance. On the proposal of the Republican party, now fewer Americans will qualify for assistance. Under current law, households can receive insurance subsidies if they earn up to 400% of the minimum income (poverty line). Senate Republicans propose to reduce this threshold to 350%.

Larry Levitt, an expert on policy issues in the family Kaiser Foundation, summed up his thoughts on the bill in Twitter thus: «In General the Senate bill is similar to bill of the house of representatives: big tax cuts, big spending cuts in Federal health, a large increase in the uninsured».

The US President Donald trump has already expressed its support for the new document and hope that the bill will be passed by the Senate, «with soul».

However, not all Republicans hold the same opinion. 4 key representative of the party in the Senate has managed to speak out against the new bill. This senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Ron Johnson.

In a statement made by outraged Republicans, said, «currently, for various reasons, we are not prepared to vote for this bill. However, we are open for negotiations and further information before it will be submitted to the vote. In this project there are provisions that entail the improvement of our current health care system, but it seems that this project did not fulfill the most important promise that we gave to the Americans to repeal ObamaCare and lower health care costs».

In order that the bill was passed, Republicans will need 50 votes. In the current situation, this result can be regarded only in the remote prospect, and then after repeated approvals and additional changes in the bill.

Source