Today Senators Orrin Hatch and Richard Burr, along with Representative Fred Upton, revealed their plan to replace Obamacare. It’s too soon to call it “the” Republican replacement, especially since it hasn’t been drafted as legislation, only as an outline.
It contains a lot of what you’d expect – eliminating the employer and individual mandate as well as the ‘essential health benefits’ mandated by Obamacare, and offers refundable tax credits for individuals and families earning up to 300 percent of the poverty level.
The most interesting thing, in my view, is that it offers the refundable tax credits to everyone under 300 percent, including those on or eligible for Medicaid. To anyone concerned about the generally poor level of access people on Medicaid have, this should be a welcome feature.
You can read the plan here: The Patient Choice, Affordability,Responsibility, and Empowerment Act
Sean Parnell ([email protected]) is a research fellow for health policy at The Heartland Institute.
