New U.S. Senate Health Reform Documents Released

Over the last few days, several documents related to the U.S. Senate’s repeal and replace efforts have been released including two new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyses. 

Yesterday, a report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the Senate’s bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no replacement would leave 32 million Americans uninsured in the next decade than under current law. This is 9 million more Americans than CBO estimated would be uninsured in the House-passed health care reform bill. With regard to premiums, the CBO report also predicts increases to insurance premiums by approximately 25 percent in 2018, reaching approximately 50 percent in 2020 and double by 2026. The report also found that the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $476 billion over the next decade. 

Also released was a revised legislative proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act.  This text has been modified after facing concerns from Senate Republicans. The CBO report that was released projected that 22 million Americans would lose insurance over a decade and the deficit would be reduced by $420 billion.  This analysis does not include a review of a controversial amendment by Senator Ted Cruz (R-FL) allowing insurers to offer less-expensive, scaled-back health plans.    A number of Republicans have criticized the CBO reports disputing the findings of the analysis.  

Both the Senate repeal and replace legislation, as well as the repeal-only legislation have faced opposition from some Senate Republicans.  With all Democrats expected to oppose these proposals, if three or more Republican oppose the legislation, the reforms cannot advance.   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said he is planning a vote the week of July 24 on either a repeal-only bill or a repeal and replace bill. 

ASA, through its Ad Hoc Committee on Health Care Reform, is continuing to evaluate the legislation and its impact on physician anesthesiologists and their patients.  You can find more information on the proposed health care legislation at www.asahq.org/healthcarereform.

Read the repeal-only CBO score.

Read the Better Care Reconciliation Act CBO score.

Read the latest version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act.