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GOP senators push ObamaCare alternative that scraps mandates
The Hill ^ | January 27, 2014 | Jonathan Easley

Posted on 01/28/2014 12:02:51 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Three senior Senate Republicans on Monday proposed an alternative to ObamaCare that would replace “job-crushing” federal mandates with a voluntary system led by the states.

The legislative blueprint from Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Orrin Hatch (Utah) would eliminate all of the healthcare law’s federal rules, including the unpopular requirement to purchase insurance under the threat of penalty.

But the GOP proposal, known as the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment (CARE) Act, would also weaken one of ObamaCare’s most popular provisions, by giving insurers an opening to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

The CARE Act would require insurers to offer policies to anyone who has proof of “continuous coverage,” along with protections for those who lose their health plans for any reason. But those with pre-existing conditions who fail to maintain continuous coverage at any time could be denied coverage.

The Republican senators said the proposal was only a first step toward finding a “way out” of what they deem a disastrous federal system.

“Our health care system wasn’t working well before ObamaCare and it is worse after Obama-Care,” Coburn said in a statement. “Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out. I’m pleased to take this important step with my colleagues.”

The senators said they plan to work with their colleagues and health industry experts to further refine the proposal, with the goal of “building consensus and introducing legislation.”

As it now stands, the GOP proposal leaves only a handful of the Affordable Care Act’s most popular provisions intact.

It would prohibit insurance companies from imposing lifetime limits on the benefits that a consumer receives and, like ObamaCare, would require pricing transparency from hospitals and insurers.

The plan would also continue to allow dependents to stay on their parents’ insurance coverage until they are the age of 26, but in a departure from President Obama’s overhaul, that requirement and others like it would be voluntary for states.

And while the Republican alternative offers a host of tax credits and subsidies, they are scaled back considerably from the financial aid available under the healthcare law.

“They tried to keep a flavor of the most popular parts of ObamaCare in the proposal, but it really demonstrates how hard it is to pull the pieces out and still have something that holds together,” Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow at The Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center, told The Hill.

Liberal groups attacked the GOP blueprint and decried the plan to scale back the rules for people with pre-existing conditions.

“Making it legal again for big insurance to discriminate against and deny coverage to 89 million Americans with pre-existing conditions is not an alternative — it’s a joke,” Americans United for Change said in a statement. “A sick one at that.”

The release of the bill reflects a larger election-year shift for Republicans, who had long been focused on a “repeal and replace” mantra for ObamaCare that was light on specifics.

Now that the Affordable Care Act is in effect, Republicans are focused on showing voters that they have a viable plan for helping people obtain insurance coverage if they manage to win back Congress and the White House.

The Republican Study Committee is pushing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to embrace an ObamaCare alternative that they released year, and a handful of other reform proposals have been offered up by Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Tom Price (R-Ga.), among others.

A vote in the House on an ObamaCare replacement bill could help GOP lawmakers on the campaign trail by shielding them from Democratic attacks that they “don’t have a plan” to help the uninsured.

But the Senate proposal also highlights the turmoil that would result from a new healthcare overhaul, now that 3 million people have signed up for ObamaCare and millions more have obtained coverage through Medicaid.

The CARE Act would reform, but not expand, Medicaid, forcing an untold number of people back into the private markets. The reforms would give states more flexibility on how to run the entitlement program, and would allow beneficiaries the option to use a tax credit to instead buy coverage in the private market.

Aides said they didn’t expect Obama to sign such a bill into law, even if Republicans control the House and Senate in 2014. But they said the public appetite for an ObamaCare alternative is bound to grow over time.

The bill is a “stepping stone for a legislative vehicle,” GOP aides said, and one that the senators hope will be improved by suggestions from other Republican senators.

The CARE Act includes many reforms that have long been popular in conservative circles, such as medical malpractice reform aimed at addressing “junk lawsuits and defensive medicine” and an expansion of tax-free health savings accounts.

It addresses the tax advantage those who obtain coverage through their employer have over those who purchase through the private market. The employer tax exclusion — one of the largest expenditures in the tax code — would be reduced to 65 percent of the average cost of a plan.

The federal savings from that cap would be used to offer tax credits to individuals with annual incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, and to offer targeted tax incentives for those who don’t receive employer-sponsored plans.

Blumberg told The Hill the employer tax exclusion reform is one of the most disruptive aspects of the proposal.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: careact; gop; gopcare; gophealthcare; obamacare; obamacarefailure; obamacaremandates; republicans; senate
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To: Cowboy Bob
No “alternatives” other than going back to the status quo ( pre-Obama).

Agreed.... A GOP alternative is still Gov controlled health care... No start overs... REPEAL IT!

21 posted on 01/28/2014 12:59:12 PM PST by thegrump (It is who we are. It is what we do. Live for nothing or die for something !)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“But the GOP proposal, known as the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment (CARE) Act, would also weaken one of ObamaCare’s most popular provisions, by giving insurers an opening to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.”

No spin there. Or at least no understanding of what insurance is supposed to do.


22 posted on 01/28/2014 1:03:55 PM PST by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Obama will reject it anyway so there is no point complaining about it.

Now that people are actually covered by Obamacare its more difficult for the elected to just take it away and say ‘Good luck’


23 posted on 01/28/2014 1:29:07 PM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'Any path to US citizenship for illegals HERE is a special path to it ')
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

yeah ... that’s it ... lets fix it ...


24 posted on 01/28/2014 1:43:59 PM PST by dartuser
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To: thegrump

“REPEAL IT!”

After repeal, who has insurance and who does not?


25 posted on 01/28/2014 2:00:05 PM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
by giving insurers an opening to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

The blunt truth is that there can be no system that requires insurers to insure pre-existing conditions that does not involve some type of broad based (read: taxpayer) subsidy. Insurers are private businesses. The only way to make money is to cover unknown catastrophic risks, not catastrophic risks that are likely to happen.

As conservative as I am, I might be willing to support some level of taxation for a limited category truly catastrophic pre-existing conditions; provided that the individual has a co-pay that is meaningful. The alternative is to bankrupt these people.

26 posted on 01/28/2014 2:02:04 PM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: steve86
Maybe insurance shouldn't cover pre-existing conditions but why should a pre-existing condition prevent a person from obtaining health insurance for unrelated medical problems, which was the previous system? Why not just exclude the pre-existing condition?

It doesn't prevent the person from obtaining health insurance. It imposes a waiting period for claims against that condition. The waiting period can vary from policy to policy. Claims for diagnoses unrelated to the preexisting condition are covered.

27 posted on 01/28/2014 2:15:16 PM PST by COBOL2Java (I'm a Christian, pro-life, pro-gun, Reaganite. The GOP hates me. Why should I vote for them?)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Working hard with “propaganda=industry”. “Insurance” is NOT industry.

And “insurance” is a collective communism. And they’re working REAL HARD with their installed fascists = Repulico-Extorters, that represent them and not the people. And this is a set up for full blown Romney-ExtortionCare, with forced letters of compliance from the communist insurance at the state level. The mandate will come from the state of residence. Decievers.

Steal and invest, steal and invest.


28 posted on 01/28/2014 2:18:34 PM PST by Varsity Flight (Extortion-Care is the Government Work-Camp: Arbeitsziehungslager)
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To: COBOL2Java

I was referring to pre-Obamacare regulations.

In numerous states no legislation existed to force insurers to accept applicants with pre-existing conditions, waiting period or not, and they didn’t.

Over the years I have corresponded with any number of individuals who could not purchase health insurance at any price, to cover any condition, because of pre-existing conditions.

My own state, Washington, had a nine-month waiting period but even then, insurers could reject an applicant and send him to the state high-risk pool (which was sometimes not accepting new individuals).


29 posted on 01/28/2014 2:29:28 PM PST by steve86 (Some things aren't really true but you wouldn't be half surprised if they were.)
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To: steve86

I worked for BC/BS for 15 years in the east, in the 80s & 90s. We had policies with waiting periods available to anyone. It depends on the state insurance regulators.


30 posted on 01/28/2014 2:57:14 PM PST by COBOL2Java (I'm a Christian, pro-life, pro-gun, Reaganite. The GOP hates me. Why should I vote for them?)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
Implement tort reform (lower insurance costs to doctors means lower costs to patients) and allow competition across state lines will mean lower prices.

Tort reform is already in place in most states; what's that done to reduce premiums on health insurance?

31 posted on 01/28/2014 3:01:26 PM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
It has the worst aspects of Obama care and then takes it even further. Government subsidies for anyone making roughly $95K or less. Has anyone done the math on that? Have they factored in all the companies that will drop their own insurance and push their employees into the federal plan? And what about the costs? As bad as it was, one thing Obamacare got right is that insurance companies need young, healthy people in the plan to offset the cost of those making the most claims. The GOP plan will be used most by those who need insurance the most, and will drive up the costs of insurance and the cost that people will pay.

And those of us who get their insurance through their employer? We're going to see our taxes go up because we're going to see 35% of our premium added to our taxable income. So I'll be taxed to provide insurance for others. And when they find out that 35% isn't enough then what? How high will you go?

Back to the drawing board, guys. If this is the best you've got then I have to say that Obamacare impacts me less.

32 posted on 01/28/2014 3:15:45 PM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg

Obamacare without mandates is still Obamacare.

How about scrap all of it?


33 posted on 01/28/2014 3:17:36 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

It doesn’t repeal or reform... pre-existing conditions remain ,community ratings remain, tax credits still given to corporations for health insurance (instead of to the individials-no portability )

what a joke.


34 posted on 01/28/2014 3:18:01 PM PST by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad and lived with his parents .)
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