Health Care Reconciliation Amendments

McConnell Amendment #270: Better Care Reconciliation Act (Failed)

This amendment is BCRA + the Cruz proposal. The Cruz amendment would allow insurers to sell "junk" insurance plans that can charge higher premiums for, or even completely reject, people with pre-existing conditions. Insurers would also be able to completely waive essential health benefits like maternity care and mental health. Insurers would be allowed to sell these "junk" plans as long as they offer one silver-level, one gold-level, and one benchmark "ACA-compliant" plan individuals would be prohibited from using premium tax credits to buy them these plans. Further, these plans do not count as “creditable coverage,” meaning enrollees may be subject to the “six month lockout” if they get sick and choose to enroll in better individual market coverage. Providers, patient groups, and insurers have come out against this language, noting that it would price those with pre-existing conditions out of coverage and plunge the individual market into a death spiral. 

Paul Amendment #271: Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017

This amendment is largely based on the 2015 Reconciliation Bill to repeal the ACA that President Obama vetoed, plus restrictions that prevent plans that include abortion coverage from being offered on the individual and small business exchanges and an attempt to change the “defund Planned Parenthood” language to avoid the Parliamentarian’s ruling. It would repeal the individual and employer mandates, the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, and the individual market premium tax credits within two years. It includes the tax cuts for wealthy individuals that were previously removed from the BCRA bill. This would leave 32 million more Americans uninsured, increase premiums by 25% by next year and give roughly $300 billion in tax cuts for top 2 percent and about $200 billion in tax cuts for health industry. Democrats will challenge multiple provisions under the Byrd Rule.

Donnelly Motion to Commit to Protect Medicaid

Motion to commit the bill to Senate Finance to strike provisions that (1) reduce or eliminate benefits or coverage for current Medicaid enrollees; (2) prevent or discourage a state from expanding its Medicaid program to include option groups of individuals; or (3) shift costs to states to cover care.

Heller Sense of the Senate

This amendment is a Sense of the Senate that the committees of jurisdiction should review legislation to ensure that states do not cut Medicaid services for individuals who are currently covered through Medicaid, including people with disabilities. It also proposes that the bills produced by the committees should not shift costs on to the states. The Sense of the Senate goes on to argue Obamacare should be repealed, citing a widely discredited study by the Trump administration that premiums have doubled over the last four years. Finally, it states that the committees should review legislation that would provide access to quality, affordable coverage in the commercial insurance market and strengthen Medicaid.

Casey Motion to Commit on Protecting People With Disabilities

Motion to commit to ensure individuals with disabilities do not lose access to affordable coverage or any of the benefits they currently receive though Medicaid or the health insurance market.

Daines Amendment #340: Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act

This amendment is identical to H.R. 676, Representative Conyers’ Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. This amendment would provide government-run, single-payer insurance in the U.S. This is a political stunt in the midst of the unprecedented and disastrous process Republicans have undertaken to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

 

Strange Amendment #389: Premium Assistance for low-income individuals

This amendment offers an altered version of BCRA’s stability funds. This version of the short-term stability fund would now require the fund's $15 billion appropriation for 2018 and 2019 and $10 billion appropriation for 2020 and 2021 be used to establish a program to provide insurers with payments to reduce premium costs for consumers who are eligible for ACA tax credits. The amendment prioritizes funding for states where the cost of insurance premiums are at least 75% higher than the national average (for which ONLY Alaska qualifies). This version of the long-term stability fund is changed to create an alternative pass-through payment to states for those who do not qualify for ACA tax credits and thus cannot be included in a state plan under the ACA’s existing 1332 waiver authority. The amendment also specifies that the abortion restrictions in Title XXI of the Social Security Act, into which the fund is drafted, apply to this funding. The amendment also phases down ACA tax credits and cost sharing subsidies to one-tenth of the amount under current law.

 

Schumer Motion to Commit to Strike Cadillac Tax (Failed 43-57)

Motion to commit to strike the Cadillac Tax in compliance with Senate budget rules.

 

Heller Amendment #502: Strike Sunset of Repeal of Tax on Employee Health Insurance Premiums and Health Plan Benefits

This amendment would strike the sunset of the repeal of the Cadillac Tax, meaning the tax is permanently repealed. Because the repeal is not offset, it increases the deficit for fiscal years outside the ten year budget window and is subject to a Byrd Rule point of order under Section 313(b)(1)(e).