Quote:

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/republicans-obamcare-repeal-veto-214244

GOP full throttle on Obamacare repeal

Republicans have agreed on a plan to use a fast-track budget procedure to send a repeal to the president’s desk.

Congressional Republicans have agreed on a plan to use a fast-track budget procedure to send an Obamacare repeal to the president’s desk, a largely symbolic move – given an expected veto – but one conservatives have been pushing for since the GOP took control of Congress.

House Republican leaders are planning to put the bill – which is being crafted in three committees this week – up for a vote as early as next month, according to House aides. After it is approved, Senate leaders are expected to put the legislation on the floor in the upper chamber.

Unlike other legislation that needs support from 60 senators to overcome a filibuster, this bill will be passed under budget reconciliation rules, meaning it only needs 51 votes to advance. With 54 Republicans in the Senate, it’s likely the measure will head to President Barack Obama’s desk for a certain veto.

Republican leaders have been saying since last year that they would consider using reconciliation to repeal the law. But until now, the timeline and legislative path forward had been uncertain and conservatives have questioned whether leaders were serious about using it on Obamacare.

Even though the measure will never become law, Republicans argue that forcing Obama to veto a bill that gets rid of some of Obamacare’s most unpopular provisions – such as the individual mandate and taxes – amounts to a political victory. Plus, any headway they can make this year could serve as a legislative roadmap for what the GOP could accomplish if they sent a Republican to the White House in 2017.

"If we pass this package, we can finally get a bill that takes apart Obamacare through the Senate," Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said after his committee approved part of the bill on Tuesday.

The House bill would repeal Obamacare’s individual and employer mandates, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, and unspent money in the Prevention and Public Health Fund. It would also repeal the Cadillac and medical device taxes and the law’s requirement that large companies auto-enroll employees in health insurance. It would also defund Planned Parenthood for one year.

Budget reconciliation, which is used relatively infrequently, was last deployed by Democrats in 2010 to pass a portion of Obamacare.

“I think it should be called ‘wreck-onciliation,’” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), “because it is a wreck for those 14 million families [with coverage under the ACA], it is a wreck for those children who have relied on the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and it is a wreck for people who will be paying 20 percent higher insurance premiums than they would be if this bill were not passed.”

The path forward looks like this: One House committee has already approved its portion of the bill. Two more committees are scheduled to take up the legislation this week. Next week, the House Budget Committee is expected to combine the bills. From there, House leaders are expected to bring the legislation to the floor for a vote. At that point, it would go to the Senate for a vote on the floor.

“We have to do the same bill as the House for it to be reconciled,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “My expectation is we’ll consider the House bill once they pass it.”

Once in the Senate, the legislation would also have to undergo review by the Senate parliamentarian to ensure that the bill abides by the complex rules for reconciliation, such as having a direct impact on the budget.

During the Senate parliamentarian’s review – called a “Byrd bath” because the rules are named for former Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd – some provisions of the bill could be eliminated.

Quote:

 

http://khn.org/news/chronically-ill-pay-more-in-obamacare-plans-than-employer-coverage/

Chronically Ill Pay More in Obamacare Plans Than Employer Coverage

Chronically ill people enrolled in individual health plans sold on the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges pay on average twice as much out-of-pocket for prescription drugs each year than people covered through their workplace, according to a study published Monday in the Health Affairs journal.

Patients with at least one chronic condition such as diabetes or asthma pay on average $621 out–of-pocket for prescription costs on the popular, mid-priced silver exchange plans compared to $304 for those with employer coverage, researchers at Emory University in Atlanta found.

The findings draw more attention to rising drug costs, now a hot button topic in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign.

An important reason why people on exchange plans pay more is they often must meet a deductible before their insurance coverage kicks in, the study said. Employer-sponsored plans usually exempt prescription drugs from their deductibles, but they still may have stiff co-pays.

As a result, the study said, patients in the most-popular silver plans pay 46 percent of their total drug spending on average, compared to 20 percent for patients in typical employer-sponsored plans. [...]

Baldo

Oct 8 2015, 07:35 PM

Study: Obamacare Cadillac Tax Forcing Employers to Cut Benefits
90 percent taking action to avoid penalty

[...]

wingedwheel

Oct 8 2015, 08:48 PM

I surprised congress hasn't acted on the Cadillac tax yet. I am guessing they will. Maybe congress is waiting for their campaign coffers to fill first. Meanwhile if you purchase your own insurance continue to grab your ankles.

Quote:

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obamacare-california-20151008-story.html

Many Obamacare dropouts in California picked up employer coverage, state says

Nearly half of the estimated 700,000 Californians who have dropped their Obamacare policies during the past two years have enrolled in an employer-based plan, a new report from the Covered California exchange shows.

In a news conference Thursday, Peter Lee, the organization’s executive director, said there were about 1.3 million Californians enrolled in the exchange’s plans as of June 30. That was about two-thirds of the 2 million who have enrolled in the exchange since it opened Oct. 1, 2013.

Lee said the exchange always expected that a range of circumstances would cause many of those who initially signed up to depart.

“This finding underscores that for many, Covered California is not an endpoint,” Lee said.

According to the exchange,

• 
  
• 44% of the 700,000 who left did so for policies offered by their employers;
  
• 16% enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program for the poor;
  
• 15% returned to the ranks of the uninsured;
  
• 13% obtained private coverage outside of the exchange; and
  
• 11% enrolled in health plans from other sources.

Covered California did not specify why some of its enrollees became uninsured again.

Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a nonprofit group that advocates for increasing the number of Californians with health insurance, said these people deserve more attention.

“We need to know what caused these folks to drop out. Was it confusion, affordability or something else?” he said.

Finding enough new enrollees to not only replenish the lost ranks but also expand membership is important if the exchange is to reach its long-term goal of insuring more than 2 million people statewide.

Enrollment is now at the low end of projections made in early 2014, which ranged from 1.3 million to 1.7 million people, according to Covered California. Estimates for the coming year are more conservative than they were for the previous year -- from 1.3 million to 1.5 million by June 30, 2016.

The individual insurance market, which includes Covered California, is known industry-wide to have some enrollment volatility, said Cynthia Cox, assistant director of health reform and private insurance for the Kaiser Family Foundation. She added that although getting a large number of Californians signed up for coverage is vital, it is not everything.

“Raw numbers are important because you look attractive to insurance companies so that they will continue to participate and compete with each other. At the same time, these enrollment goals are not meant to be set in stone,” Cox said.

She said a more significant measure is whether enough young and healthy people are enrolled to make up for the costs incurred by older policyholders, who are more likely to use healthcare services.

“That is the key to keeping premiums low,” she said. “So far, California is stronger than a lot of states in terms of enrolling its potential market.”

Lee said while the percentage of young enrollees in California has not reached its full capacity, actuaries have judged the overall mix of enrollees to be healthy enough to hold statewide premium increases to 4%.

In addition to the breakdown of those who have left the exchange’s plans, Covered California released more data on who has remained enrolled. It said 9 in 10 enrollees are receiving subsidized coverage.

A breakdown of race and ethnicity showed that 37% of Covered California policyholders are white, 29% are Latino, 23% are Asian and 2.4% are African American.