called the CARE act. Some highlights:
Pre-existing conditions: keeps the idea of it, but requires an individual tol be continually covered for the benefit, so if an individual loses their job and health coverage, they must keep private insurance or lose the ability to have a pre-existing condition covered in the future.
Removes federal mandates and puts that power at the state level
Removes single low-income individuals from the expanded Medicaid program and instead gives them a tax credit of approx $1500 per year to purchase private insurance. What coverage they could get for that is unknown, but it does put those individuals into a profit making insurance plan instead of a government one.
The CARE Act would reform, but not expand, Medicaid, forcing an untold number of people back into the private markets. The reforms would give states more flexibility on how to run the entitlement program, and would allow beneficiaries the option to use a tax credit to instead buy coverage in the private market.
Changes the tax credits from individuals who are at 400% of poverty level to 300% of poverty level.
The Republican plan puts less emphasis on expanding Medicaid; Obamacare relies on that public program for half of the entire insurance expansion. The replacement plan would limit any Medicaid expansion to pregnant women and children living below the poverty line, and give states the option to decide whether to participate. And even then, those people would have more of a choice: They could decide whether to participate on Medicaid, or use a tax credit to buy private insurance. Under Obamacare, there isn't that option.
. The biggest, most significant difference between Obamacare and the replacement plan is about financing -- how you pay for all those insurance subsidies. The replacement plan repeals a whole slew of industry taxes that had the insurance companies, hospitals and medical device makers all helping to foot the bill. Those are gone. In their place is a limit on the the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored insurance.
Right now, the federal government does not tax health insurance when it is provided to an employee by an employer. The Republican plan would limit the tax exclusion to 65 percent of the average health insurance plan. Any amount of a premium beyond that amount would need to be paid with post-tax dollars. There's no estimate on how many people this would effect and how much more they would pay for premiums, but Republican Senate aides do say it's true that people who receive more robust policies from their employers would pay more for premiums.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/196504-gop-senators-push-obamacare-alternative#ixzz2ttSRxrKt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/27/republicans-have-an-obamacare-replacement-economists-will-love-it-real-people-wont/
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