More Uncertainty
Some Republican and Democratic U.S. governors, who help oversee the joint federal-state Medicaid program for the poor as well as private health insurers, have balked at Republican lawmakers’ efforts to undo a law that expanded Medicaid in some states and reduced the number of uninsured people.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-Va.), who heads the National Governors Association, on Tuesday told CNN that a repeal-only measure “will only bring more uncertainty. Uncertainty is crushing this market because the insurance companies don’t know what to do.”
Shelving the current bill means that insurers once again face uncertainty about whether the administration will cut off funding for the subsidies used to make Obamacare individual plans affordable, putting 2018 coverage and long-term planning at risk.
For hospitals, the move relieves the near-term pressure of massive Medicaid reform, but the long-term plan for federal spending for states’ Medicaid expansion is now murky.
“The hospitals remain at the whim of the fluid efforts in Washington,” Oppenheimer analyst Michael Wiederhorn said in a research note.
Republicans in Congress had hoped to finish with healthcare before an upcoming August recess so they could tackle a wide-ranging rewrite of the U.S. tax code in September. Separate talks on taxes appear unlikely to reach Trump’s pledged 15% corporate rate.
But their failure exposed the sharp divide within their own ranks between moderates concerned about Medicaid cuts and conservatives who back them and want even more dramatic changes.
A similar version of the Senate bill passed the House in May, but legislation must pass both chambers for Trump to sign into law. As of late Monday, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) had no immediate comment on his next steps on healthcare.