GOP/HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA): “For the health-care system, it’s back to square one.
Insurers, hospitals and state officials are facing the prospect that the Affordable Care Act will remain the law of the land for now at least, but they also are left with huge questions about how key aspects of the law will be handled under the Trump administration as deadlines loom for insurers’ decisions about next year.
The collapse of Republicans’ overhaul effort spares health companies and states major cutbacks in Medicaid that many had opposed. That means a major source of the coverage gains under the ACA is likely to remain intact for the foreseeable future, a boon for hospitals, doctors and officials in states that chose to expand the program.
The bill would have ‘ended Medicaid as we know it,’ said John Jurenko, vice president of government relations at NYC Health & Hospitals, which runs New York City’s 11 public hospitals. That relief was temporary, he said, as he considered the continuing uncertainty. ‘I was very happy for a few minutes,’ he said. ‘We need to be vigilant.’
For insurers, the results are mixed. They fought to kill a provision in the latest Senate bill that they said would have blown up the ACA’s marketplaces, but they supported Republicans’ efforts to kill the law’s tax on health-insurance plans.”
-Anna Wilde Mathews and Melanie Evans, “Health Insurers Brace for New Uncertainty After GOP Bill’s Collapse,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 18, 2017 08:09pm