House committees report out ACA repeal bills

The House Committee on Ways & Means early this morning reported out its part of the House legislative package to repeal and replace parts of the Affordable Care Act, while the House Energy & Commerce Committee this afternoon completed the markup of its piece of the legislation – collectively known as the American Health Care Act. The Ways and Means bill would repeal the ACA’s employer and individual mandates to purchase health coverage and replace the law's means-tested advance premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions with tax credits that vary by age and income. The Energy & Commerce bill would end the enhanced Medicaid federal funding for future expansion populations, beginning in 2020, and transition the program to a per capita cap funding model. The package does not restore the hospital market basket reductions or Medicare disproportionate share hospital cuts used to help fund the ACA coverage expansions. AHA members received a Special Bulletin March 7 with further details. AHA this week in a letter to House members said that it cannot support the package in its current form. House leaders have expressed a desire to have the package on the House floor before the end of the month. It now goes to the House Budget Committee, where the bills will be combined into one piece of legislation.