Tuesday, December 23, 2014

GOP Mulls ObamaCare Plan B As Supreme Court Ruling Looms

In just six months, the Supreme Court's King v. Burwell ruling could render ObamaCare unworkable in 36 states that don't operate their own exchanges.
The big question that Republicans will be wrestling with until then is what happens next if justices rule that Healthcare.gov can't legally disburse premium subsidies.
As soon-to-be Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put it in a post-election forum, if the decision goes as the GOP hopes, "I would assume that you could have a mulligan here, a major do-over of the whole thing."
A "do-over" would be complicated by the chaos that could result if millions lost affordable coverage. The crisis would give the GOP a moment of maximum leverage to prescribe a fix more in keeping with the party's principles. But to make the most of that opportunity, Republicans need to translate those principles into a workable plan, and they're not there yet.
The various GOP ObamaCare alternative plans to emerge have "a tendency to look at only a small part of the picture," such as hitting a fiscal goal, said Thomas Miller, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
[...]
... So what might that alternative look like?
Three GOP blueprints (one from Sens. Richard Burr, Tom Coburn and Orrin Hatch; the 2017 Project; and Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute) share some common elements. All would ditch ObamaCare limits on age-rating that artificially raise premiums for young adults to make insurance more affordable for older adults.
All would make it possible to buy coverage that's far less comprehensive than ObamaCare options. All would ditch the individual mandate and, in various ways, move away from the guarantee that one can opt to go uninsured one year and not face higher rates the next year — even if one gets seriously ill. Lastly, all would to some extent curtail the subsidies available under ObamaCare.
Yet critiques of the three plans from fellow Republicans cast some doubt as to whether the plans are ready for prime-time or if the party can reach a consensus in short order. ...
Read the full story HERE.

Related Link below

Who Says the GOP Doesn't Have an Alternative to Obamacare....NOT SO (Two Plans included)

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