This is what experts want Congress to do about Obamacare
Six experts talk health care.
AMANDA MICHELLE GOMEZ
DEC 7, 2018, 9:00 AM
UPDATED: DEC 7, 2018, 10:01 AM
Congress won’t be able to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) after the midterm elections handed Democrats control of the House of Representatives — but that doesn’t mean lawmakers are done tinkering with the 2010 health care overhaul law.
Democrats ran and won on health care and the new House majority is expected to make strengthening the ACA a top priority next year. For some lawmakers, this means passing measures to further stabilize the marketplace, where over 10 million consumers purchase private insurance. For others, this involves investigating federal sabotage efforts. Lawmakers are also feeling pressure to do something about protections for people with pre-existing conditions, which was a central campaign issue, particularly following the Trump administration’s announcement that it would no longer defend the ACA in court.
Meanwhile, Democrats are going to continue to debate Medicare buy-in and Medicare for All legislation, jump-starting talks about where the party goes from here. Senators also want to tackle drug prices.
But there’s only so much political capital Democrats can spend on shoring up the ACA marketplace where people access health care when they can’t get employer-based plans: ThinkProgress reached out to six experts familiar with how policy affects people, to see what they think Congress should prioritize. While everyone was concerned about the Texas lawsuit trying to end the ACA, most agreed that the best strategy for lawmakers when it comes to defending consumer protections is to simply not repeal the law. Also, although Trump stopped paying for subsidies in 2017 that offset costs for insurers covering low-income people, none of the experts prioritized restoring those subsidies unless the administration outlaws the workaround that effectively gets companies paid. No one emphasized restoring the federal individual mandate either.
https://thinkprogress.org/what-a-governor-insurance-regulator-and-consumer-advocate-want-congress-to-do-about-obamacare-af94657e9fa3/
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