I don’t normally spend much time commenting on newly proposed legislation in its earliest stages. However, the two separate major pieces of legislation introduced yesterday deserve some attention. The first piece was the tax reform legislation
, I covered impressions of that “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” bill here. The second proposed bill called “Healthcare Market Certainty and Mandate Relief Act of 2017” addresses health insurance issues by funding insurance subsidies and removing the individual and employer health insurance mandates.
The American Hospital Association published a press release that says:
“Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) yesterday introduced the Healthcare Market Certainty and Mandate Relief Act of 2017 that would fund cost-sharing reduction payments to health insurers for two years and eliminate temporarily certain Affordable Care Act mandates. The leaders said the proposal would fund the CSRs through 2019. For 2018
, carriers would have to meet certain conditions that would be determined in consultation with the secretaries of the departments of Health and Human Services and Treasury. The proposal also would eliminate the ACA’s individual mandate from 2017-2021; eliminate the ACA’s employer mandate from 2015-2017; and expand the use of health savings accounts.”
The link in the description above is to the Senate bill. The House version of the bill is here. I haven’t read either because we understand that the wording is still in flux. (I don’t understand the process of changing a filed bill or whether these are still considered unfiled).
It is significant to note that this bill is separate from the tax reform proposal and will likely proceed on its own route. It seems to me that the proposal
, while unorthodox from an actuarial perspective, just might work.
As of November 5, 2017, the bill has not moved forward from The House Ways and Means Committee.