While Senate Democrats have been gearing up to vote on their ACA enhanced subsidy extension proposal on Dec. 11, Republicans are readying their own bill.
“The way the program is structured, the money goes straight to the insurance companies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Dec. 9 of the Democrat-led bill. “You ought to come up with a way in which you can deliver the benefit to the patients and not to the insurance companies, and that you shouldn’t have hardworking Americans subsidizing affluent people, people who make a lot of money, and that’s what their proposal continues to do.”
Mr. Thune scheduled a Dec. 11 vote on a separate bill from Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Bill Cassidy, MD, R-La. The bill includes exchange plan health savings accounts, funds cost-sharing reduction payments and allows individual-market consumers to purchase catastrophic plans. The act also limits Medicaid funding uses and cuts gender-transition procedure access.
President Donald Trump has been eyeing ways to send healthcare dollars “directly to the people” — possibly through health savings accounts.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported ACA fraud risk earlier this month, sparking more Republican backlash, including from Mr. Thune.
“This program desperately needs to be reformed,” he said. “The Democrats have decided [they’re] not going to do anything to reform it, and so we’ll see where the votes are on Thursday.”
