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G.O.P. Plans Immediate Repeal of Health Law, Then a Delay New York Times by Robert Pear, Jennifer Steinhauer & Thomas Kaplan—Republicans in Congress plan to move almost immediately next month to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as President-elect Donald J. Trump promised. But they also are likely to delay the effective date so that they have several years to phase out President Obama’s signature achievement. This emerging “repeal and delay” strategy, which Speaker Paul D. Ryan discussed this week with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, underscores a growing recognition that replacing the health care law will be technically complicated and could be politically explosive.
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Repealing Obamacare to Be First on Senate Agenda in 2017 Reuters by Susan Cornwell—Repealing Obamacare will be the first order of business in the U.S. Senate in January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said on Tuesday. Republicans will replace President Barack Obama's signature health insurance program that provides coverage to millions of Americans "step by step," said Senator John Thune, another member of the Republican leadership. McConnell did not say when the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, as it is officially known, would go into effect. Senator John Barrasso said it might be effective in two or three years, and that the timeframe was still being debated. Democrats scoffed at the Republican plans, saying they do not even know what they want to replace Obamacare with. "Bring it on," said Senator Chuck Schumer, who will be the Democrats' leader in the Senate next year.
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Trump's Pick for HHS Signals He Is Dead Serious About Repealing Obamacare The Huffington Post by Jonathan Cohn—President-elect Donald Trump will name an ultra-conservative surgeon, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), to run the Department of Health and Human Services. The choice, which Trump’s transition team announced on Tuesday morning, would appear to signal Trump’s determination to proceed with a major overhaul of federal health care programs―including not just Obamacare, which Republicans have sworn to repeal, but also Medicare and Medicaid. And Price has said he wouldn’t stop with Obamacare. In mid-November, not long after the presidential election, Price said that Republicans could also use reconciliation to change Medicare, as well.
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Study: 'Obamacare' Repeal-Only Would Make 30M Uninsured AP by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar—Repealing President Barack Obama's health care law without a replacement risks making nearly 30 million people uninsured, according to a study released Wednesday. Separately, a professional group representing benefit advisers warned congressional leaders of the risk of "significant market disruption" that could cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance. Republicans dismiss such dire scenarios, saying that they are working on replacement legislation for a President Donald Trump to sign. Nonetheless, the complex two-stage strategy the GOP Congress is contemplating has raised concerns not only among supporters of the law, but also industries like hospitals and insurers.
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Repealing Obamacare with No Viable Replacement Ready to Go Could Wreak Havoc, Health Insurance Experts Warn CNBC by Dan Mangan—The slogan "repeal and replace Obamacare" could end up being a recipe for disaster if the "replace" part gets delayed. A top group of experts who analyze the financial risks of insuring people warned Congress on Wednesday that repealing major parts of Obamacare without also enacting a replacement plan at the same time could significantly disrupt the individual plan health insurance market. The American Academy of Actuaries said that could include more insurers dropping out of that market and ever-increasing premiums, "leading to millions of Americans losing their health insurance."
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Hospitals Warn of Job Losses, Billions in Cuts If Trump Repeals ACA Modern Healthcare by Virgil Dickson—The nation's hospital lobbying groups are warning that President-elect Donald Trump's promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act could lead to massive service cuts, layoffs, and hospital closures if an adequate replacement is not developed.
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Obama Urges the Public to Tell Republicans Not to ‘Abandon’ the ACA Washington Post by Amy Goldstein—President Obama on Friday urged the American public to press the Republican-led Congress not to abandon gains in insurance coverage and access to health care that the Affordable Care Act has brought during the past six years. The president’s brief remarks, on Facebook Live in front of a White House fireplace with Christmas decorations, were his most pointed since last month’s election about the fate of the health-care law that stands as the largest domestic achievement of his presidency—and a main target of President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican majority in Congress.
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Trump Promised to Repeal Obamacare, But It Turns Out Americans Like Most of It, a Poll Finds Los Angeles Times by Noam Levey—Despite sharp partisan differences over the Affordable Care Act, Democrats and Republicans, including voters who backed President-elect Donald Trump, strongly support most of the law’s key provisions, a new national poll indicates. And although most Trump voters still favor repealing the law, often called Obamacare, an increasing share of Americans overall oppose that approach, according to the poll, which was conducted in mid-November, following Trump’s election. Just a quarter of Americans say they wanted to scrap the law, down from nearly a third in October. By contrast, nearly half say they want the law expanded or implemented as it is. Another 17% say they want the law scaled back. This apparent paradox—in which Americans view the law unfavorably but overwhelmingly support most of its key provisions—has characterized opinion about Obamacare for years, said Robert Blendon, an authority on public attitudes about health care at Harvard University.