Afternoon Must-Read: GOP Senators Unveil First Health Care Plan in an Obamacare World
Philip Klein: GOP senators unveil first health care plan in an Obamacare world:
Sens. Tom Coburn… Richard Burr… and Orrin Hatch…. Insurers would be barred from imposing lifetime limits on medical claims and required to allow individuals to remain on their parents’ policies until the age of 26…. Obamacare [allows] insurers [to] only charge three times as much to older Americans as they charge younger Americans…. Coburn-Burr-Hatch proposal would… allow… insurers to charge older Americans five times as much. However, states would be permitted to set their own ratio…. The GOP proposal would require insurers to offer coverage to anybody who has applied as long as they have maintained continuous coverage, regardless of whether they are switching health plans or shifting from employer-based health care to the individual market. The theory is that this would offer some protection to those with pre-existing conditions without having the same effect on premiums as Obamacare’s full ban on the practice. At the same time, the idea is that this would create an incentive for everybody to maintain their insurance coverage, thus negating the need for the individual mandate.
The new GOP proposal would maintain the employer health insurance bias. Instead of scrapping the employer health insurance tax exclusion, the proposal would merely cap it at 65 percent of the average plan’s costs. The savings generated… would be used to help finance tax credits to be offered to individuals earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level…. In cases where individuals qualify for a tax credit high enough to cover the cost of a plan but never sign up for insurance, states have the option of automatically enrolling them in a default policy…. The proposal would also expand the use of tax free health savings accounts…. Instead of expanding Medicaid, as Obamacare does, the Coburn-Burr-Hatch proposal would reform it to give more flexibility to states and allow Medicaid beneficiaries the option of using their tax credit to purchase private coverage.