By: Brady Bizarro, Esq. After the surprising collapse of the American Health Care Act (“AHCA”), House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) remarked, “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.” Tom Price, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, proclaimed that Obamacare was “the law of the land.” In the immediate aftermath of the stunning political defeat, many political analysts concluded that the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare was finished. Only a few days later, however, there were talks of reviving the legislation over the next few weeks. The President himself took to social media to proclaim, “We are all going to make a deal on health care . . . that’s such an easy one.” What changed? Republican leaders faced immense pressure from conservative activists, interest groups, the insurance lobby, donors, and constituents to follow through on one of their most significant campaign promises. In addition, the President has targeted individual congressmen, mostly from the House Freedom Caucus, and pressured them to get on board with the AHCA. Whatever the Republicans decide to do, they need to act fast. The legislative calendar is jam-packed with other top priorities, including passing a budget and tackling tax reform. Additionally, insurers are developing premiums and benefit packages for health plans to offer in 2018, and these will need to be reviewed by federal and state officials over the summer. In the immediate future, despite the legislative failure, the Trump Administration still has plenty of ways it can cripple the ACA. The President himself has said the law would “explode” on its own, but that process could certainly be accelerated. For example, the Administration could block funding for ACA subsidies, refuse to enforce the individual and employer mandates, and redefine Essential Health Benefits (“EHBs”). That last part, redefining EHBs, could have a significant impact on employer-sponsored health insurance. In fact, a new bill is in the works, and one of its provisions (included by the Freedom Caucus) is to repeal EHBs entirely. Essential Health Benefits are requirements that insurers have to cover services like maternity care, mental health care, and hospitalization. According to Republican lawmakers, removing these requirements would significantly lower the cost of certain health plans because they would not be forced to cover a defined list of services. We will continue to follow new developments closely, especially those that impact employer-sponsored health care.
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By: Adam Russo, Esq. The fact that Trump’s healthcare bill failed is big news and now everyone in Washington and in the media is trying to place blame on someone, whether it’s president Trump, Speaker Ryan, the Freedom Caucus or the Democrats. The reality is that this bill would not have worked and I believe that no bill passed in the next few years will work either and the reason is simple. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are willing to truly lower the overall cost of healthcare. The only way that we can have a successful health plan for all Americans is by fighting the root of the problem – the ridiculously high priced hospital and other facility bills and the huge sticker prices on specialty drugs. There is an easy solution – force the hospitals to justify their charges and negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies on what they can charge. However, the politicians in Washington will never do it because these two entities are the reason they are in DC in the first place. They fund the campaigns, they feed the lobbyists, they are the biggest employers in most representatives’ districts. They will never push them or fight them or even question them because they need them. If you are a politician and the largest employer in your district that employs the most people is the hospital, then are you really going to criticize their practices? Hell, no! Until this changes, we will see the same games being played as they are now. That’s why we are here at The Phia Group, because we are not afraid to criticize, to fight, to question and to ensure that our clients can offer their employees the best health care coverage at the lowest prices possible.