Senate Republican leadership is expected to release an updated version of its healthcare bill Monday, closing a loophole that healthcare experts said would have hurt the insurance market.
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Senate Republicans are expected to release a new version of their healthcare bill to fix one of its biggest flaws
The first version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act failed to include a continuous coverage provision, which will be resolved with a new draft on Monday.
Mitch McConnell.
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The discussion draft of the bill, named the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), released Thursday was missing an important piece that experts say would be needed to stabilize the marketplace and encourage enrollment in the insurance marketplace.
To avoid adverse selection in the individual insurance market, the legislation needs a continuous-coverage provision to keep healthy people buying insurance instead of waiting until they're sick. The new version of the legislation is expected to add that feature.
To make sure that the market isn't full of exclusively sick people — resulting in higher costs and financial losses for insurers — there needs to be some reason for healthy people to sign up. The most effective way to do so is not only the carrot of coverage benefits, but also a stick to punish those that do not have coverage.
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Under Obamacare, this stick was the tax penalty for not having coverage. In the House Republican bill, people that did not maintain coverage the year before could have their premiums raised as much as 30% on top of normal costs as a penalty.
The Senate's updated version contains a provision that, for six months, freezes out anyone signing up for insurance that did not maintain coverage the previous year.
This is designed to keep people in the pool, but experts say it could also lead to increased costs. People still may not get coverage until they are sick, and faced with a six month delay that could just opt to go to the emergency room in the interim period.
This waiting period would likely help to keep healthy people in the market, but it could hurt people that get sick.
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