New Senate healthcare bill is a slight (emphasis on slight) improvement over last draft

Published July 14, 2017 12:57am ET



In an ongoing effort to pass health reform, Senate leadership are out with a new version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act. In some ways, this bill is an improvement: The latest version includes more freedom for insurance companies to offer (and for consumers to buy) insurance plans that don’t meet all of Obamacare’s requirements. Therefore, these plans would be more affordable. It also includes a fund to help insurance companies keep costs low for those with medical conditions and costly claims. And it would let people use Health Savings Accounts to pay for coverage.

Unfortunately, this new version of the bill keeps some Obamacare taxes in place, meaning $230 billion more in taxes than in the previous version.

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