Understanding the ACA and What People with Medicare Will Lose If the ACA Is Repealed

In a symbolic gesture, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in its entirety. This includes provisions that would close the doughnut hole in the Medicare prescription drug benefit, prevent insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with pre-existing conditions, and cover as many as 32 million uninsured Americans.

The Senate will not take up the repeal bill, but efforts to dismantle health reform continue.

Other benefits that people with Medicare stand to lose if the law is undermined by its opponents—by cutting off funding for implementation, for example—include free preventive services for Medicare consumers and initiatives to improve the quality and coordination of care that Medicare consumers receive. The ACA also extends the life of the Medicare trust fund for 12 years, in part by eliminating waste and creating greater efficiency in the delivery of care to people with Medicare. The law emphasizes primary care and encourages Medicare physicians and other providers to communicate with each other across settings and specialties to improve outcomes. It also aims to lower hospital readmission rates by lowering payments to facilities with high rates of rehospitalizations.

Read Medicare Rights Center’s press release on repeal of the ACA.

Take action and tell members of Congress not to undermine improvements to Medicare included in the ACA.

Read more about the discounts during the coverage gap.

Read more about free preventive services available to consumers with Original Medicare.

Read Medicare’s brochure about free preventive services for consumers with Original Medicare.

Read a timeline of implementation of the ACA, and learn more about when provisions of the law take effect.


Medicare Rights Center - Medicare Rights Center

GOP moves to repeal healthcare law - TheHill.com

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By Molly K. Hooper

House Republican leaders introduced a bill Thursday to repeal and replace the sweeping healthcare law adopted in late March.

According to Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the measure would repeal the current law and replace it with the alternative the minority party offered to the original healthcare legislation last November.
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Health Care Reform Provisions Affecting Older Adults

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The Gerontological Society of America has prepared a summary of health care reform provisions affecting Older Adults contained in the U.S. House of Representatives' Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), which President Barack Obama signed into law on Tuesday, March 23. This comprehensive health care reform bill previously was passed by the Senate on December 24, 2009, and contains a number of provisions which affect older adults. Read the GSA Summary

House Democrats release bill for Budget markup Monday - The Hill Blog

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By Michael O'Brien

House Democrats on Sunday night set into motion what they hope will be the final steps on healthcare reform.

The House Budget Committee on Sunday evening released text that will serve as the base legislation for the changes the House will seek to the Senate bill this week.

Specifically, the Budget committee released a 2,309-page effort that had been previously recommended to the Education and Labor Committee and Ways and Means Committee last year.

The measure posted online does not include the substantive changes to the Senate healthcare bill that House Democrats will seek. Those changes will be offered during the markups in the Budget and Rules committees, which the budget panel hopes to begin on Monday afternoon.

The House is expected to approve the Senate's healthcare bill along with the package of changes. The Senate would then be expected to approve the package of changes under budget reconciliation rules.

Because the bill will be considered under budget reconciliation rules in the Senate, GOP senators will not be able to filibuster the package and Democrats will not need 60 votes to move the legislation through the Seante.

The House has demanded the Senate approve changes to its healthcare bill in exchange for the House voting for the Senate bill.
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Full Legislation

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Who blinks first? Dems can’t agree - TheHill.com

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By Alexander Bolton

Democrats’ final push on healthcare reform has become a game of chicken between the House and Senate.

Lawmakers are at an impasse over who should go first, and a lack of trust between Democrats in both chambers threatens to derail the effort in the final stretch. This is complicating an effort to use special rules to move the legislation with a simple majority vote in the Senate.

Each side is demanding that certain preconditions be met before acting.
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House could vote Saturday on health bill - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

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By Michael O'Brien

The House could hold a rare Saturday vote this weekend to pass its healthcare reform legislation.

An aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that a vote could happen at 6 p.m. on Saturday, a schedule House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) suggested in reports Wednesday afternoon.
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'Very, very close to zero' GOPers will vote for House health bill - TheHill.com

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Republicans will overwhelmingly reject the Democrats' healthcare reform measure when it is reaches the House floor, according to a key lawmaker.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), who serves as deputy GOP whip, told The Hill that the number of Republicans supporting the sweeping legislation will be “very, very close to zero.”
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Pelosi picks up centrist ‘yes’ votes in House - TheHill.com

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By Mike Soraghan

Centrist Democrats in the House are moving toward the “yes” column on healthcare reform, triggering optimism among leadership officials that they will soon have the votes to pass their $894-billion measure.

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Health Affairs Blog-HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for Americans Act

by Timothy Jost

HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for Americans Act, hit the House floor with a thud Thursday morning at 1990 pages, almost double the size of the bill we last saw before the Energy and Commerce hearings at the end of July. The bill incorporates, of course, amendments from the House jurisdictional committees, but also ideas from the Senate Finance bill and some new initiatives as well. In addition, far more than earlier congressional versions of health reform legislation, the new bill includes important initiatives that will impact the American public quickly, an important consideration both substantively and politically.

The intent of this post is to describe what is in the bill and the longer-term politics and policies that the bill’s contents represent. The politics de jour of the bill are being amply covered by the media and will be given less attention here.

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House GOP's "Better Ideas" Remain Under Wraps - Kaiser Health News

"House Republicans said the newly released Democratic health care reform bill would create an expensive government-run heath care system paid for by those who could least afford it, but they declined to say whether they would introduce a conference alternative," Roll Call reports. "We have better ideas, and we'll be talking about them over the next week," House Minority Leader John Boehner, said at a press conference Thursday, as he stood behind the Democrat's 1,990-page-thick block of legislation. Boehner would not say specifically when the GOP's ideas would be unveiled (Kucinich, 10/29).

House Republican leaders are also seeking to brand the Democratic legislation as the "Pelosi healthcare bill," The Hill reports. In a closed meeting between Republican legislators, the leadership said they wanted to use the label because of the speaker's low approval rating, a member of Congress who was not identified told The Hill (Hooper, 10/29).

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Audio: Health On The Hill - House Health Bill Explained - Kaiser Health News

KHN's Mary Agnes Carey discusses the latest health reform proposal unveiled today by House Democratic leaders.

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Republicans Assail 'Freight Train of More Mandates' In House Health Bill - Kaiser Health News

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Republicans criticized the House health overhaul bill, released by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for its size, scope and cost.

ABC News reports: "Republicans, as expected, assailed the Pelosi bill, saying its 1,990 pages don't reflect any change. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, billed it as a 'government takeover of the health care system.' The Democrats' legislation has 'over 50 new mandates, bureaucracies, tax hikes, commissions -- All of this is going to require tens of thousands of new federal employees, which is fairly designed for a government takeover of our health care system,' Boehner, with a printout of the entire bill in front of him, told reporters. 'How are we going to fix out health care system with 1,990 pages of bureaucracy?'" (Khan and Karl, 10/29).

The National Review Online reports that Boehner said that "the House bill is no different than the Senate's in terms of it's expansiveness.
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House Democrats announce health-care bill - washingtonpost.com

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By Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery Washington Post Staff Writer

After six months of dealmaking, House Democratic leaders introduced a health-care reform bill Thursday that would expand coverage to almost all Americans and overhaul the insurance industry while asking the wealthiest taxpayers to pay much of the tab.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) announced the 10-year $894 billion package on the Capitol steps, where she was surrounded by Democrats from all factions of her diverse caucus. "Leaders of all political parties, starting over a century ago with President Theodore Roosevelt, have called and fought for health-care reform and health-insurance reform," Pelosi said. "Today we are about to deliver on the promise."

The House bill is similar to its Senate counterpart, although a handful of key differences could make for protracted negotiations this year. For example, the House's surtax on those earning more than $500,000 a year is a non-starter in the Senate. And House Democrats oppose the Senate's main revenue measure, an excise tax on high-value, or "Cadillac," health-insurance plans. Both bills include a government insurance plan, but the Senate version would allow states to opt out of participating.

Under the House bill, 36 million uninsured Americans would become eligible for coverage. About 15 million of the poorest children and adults would enroll in Medicaid. An additional 21 million would purchase coverage on a new national insurance exchange, where private plans would compete with a "public option" backed by the federal government.
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Transcript of Pelosi's Announcement

Link to House Bill

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House Democrats Prepare For Thursday Release Of Health Bill - Kaiser Health News

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The Associated Press: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making plans to release on Thursday morning the House version of sweeping health reform legislation, depending on the outcome of a Wednesday afternoon meeting with House leaders. "The rollout would cap months of arduous negotiations to bridge differences between liberal and moderate Democrats and blend health care overhaul bills passed by three separate committees over the summer."
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