On January 13, the House passed the 2017 budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 3), which should be found on President Trump’s desk Monday morning. As previously explained, this sets the stage for a filibuster-proof, budget reconciliation bill that can repeal and replace spending and tax provisions of the ACA.
S. 106, introduced January 12 by Senator Cruz, would repeal the ACA entirely, but appears to include provisions susceptible to Senate filibuster.
While we await a consensus reconciliation bill, ACA-nibbling measures continue to be filed, including these:
H.R. 563 would eliminate the ACA individual mandate;
H.R. 562 would zero the individual mandate tax;
H.R. 561 would re-define “Applicable Large Employer”;
H.R. 551 would upgrade the ACA status of catastrophic coverage insurance;
H.R. 537 and H.R. 521 would exempt from the individual mandate those living in counties with less than 2 Exchange insurers;
S. 147 would forbid what it calls “a taxpayer bailout of health insurance issuers;”
S. 108 would repeal the medical device tax.
We expect to hear next week about President Trump’s initial ACA “executive actions.” We doubt that we will see a consensus reconciliation bill in either chamber before Groundhog Day.
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