8 Big Changes Under Tom Price’s Obamacare Replacement Plan

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8 Big Changes Under Tom Price’s Obamacare Replacement Plan

The legislation Price is offering as a replacement to Obamacare is called the Empowering Patients First Act and is reflective of his long-standing concern that government has interfered with the traditional doctor-patient relationship. The latest iteration of his legislation would try to wean 20 million Americans off of Obamacare with a handful of tax credits, savings incentives, state grants and other marketing incentives to encourage competition within the insurance industry.

Price’s approach is comprehensive – his latest proposal totals 242 pages – and highly ambitious in conceiving of a parallel universe of health care insurance for many in this country.

* Obamacare would be scrapped, including the government-run insurance markets in every state, the mandates on individuals and businesses and federal tax credits to subsidize the insurance of lower income Americans. Price’s plan instead would offer fixed tax credits – pegged to a person’s age rather than their income -- so that they can buy their insurance policies in the private market....

* Just as is the case under Obamacare, people with pre-existing medical conditions or chronic illnesses couldn’t be denied coverage under Price’s approach -- provided they had continuous insurance for 18 months before choosing a new policy. That’s a big caveat designed to discourage people from obtaining coverage during an illness and then dropping the policy after recovering. If someone allows their policy to lapse, the next time they return to the market they could be charged up to 150 percent of the standard premiums for the next two years. . . .

* Price would seek expanded use of health savings accounts . . .

* Price would provide grants to states to insure the “high risk” population. The risk pools would be the equivalent of a safety net for insurers, to offset part of their costs when hit with enrollees’ catastrophic health care costs. . . .

* Price would likely roil businesses by imposing a cap on the amount of money that companies could deduct from their taxes to defray the cost of providing health insurance to their workers. This exclusion is one of the largest in the federal tax code . . . .

* In one of the biggest blows to poor and low-income Americans, Price would repeal the expanded Medicaid coverage in 32 states . . . .

* Price’s approach .... allows health insurers licensed to sell policies in one state to offer them to residents of other states. . . .

* The Price proposals .... would eliminate Obamacare-style mandates for insurers to include a standard package of benefits . . . .

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