American Enterprise Institute's "Improving Health and Health Care" plan
This page covering a proposed federal healthcare bill was last updated in 2017. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Trump Administration (first term)  Vice President Mike Pence Cabinet • White House staff • Transition team • Trump's second term |
Domestic affairs: Abortion • Crime and justice • Education • Energy and the environment • Federal courts • Firearms policy • First Amendment • Healthcare • Immigration • Infrastructure • LGBTQ issues • Marijuana • Puerto Rico • Social welfare programs • Veterans • Voting issues Economic affairs and regulations: Agriculture and food policy • Budget • Financial regulation • Jobs • Social Security • Taxes • Trade Foreign affairs and national security: Afghanistan • Arab states of the Persian Gulf • China • Cuba • Iran • Iran nuclear deal • Islamic State and terrorism • Israel and Palestine • Latin America • Military • NATO • North Korea • Puerto Rico • Russia • Syria • Syrian refugees • Technology, privacy, and cybersecurity |
| Polling indexes: Opinion polling during the Trump administration |
Improving Health and Health Care is a healthcare plan released by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in December 2015. The proposal would maintain a ban on denying coverage for preexisting conditions, a limit on untaxed health benefits, and tax credits for individuals to purchase insurance. Unlike other repeal and replace healthcare plans, the AEI proposal envisions keeping the health insurance exchanges, although these could be privately run. The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, would be repealed in its entirety.
Text of plan
The following is a summary of the American Enterprise Institute's Improving Health and Health Care plan:
| “ |
Replacing the Affordable Care Act with More Effective Reforms
Medicaid Reform
Medicare Reform
Promoting Lifelong Enrollment in Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
Additional Reforms
|
” |
| —American Enterprise Institute[2] | ||
Summary
The American Enterprise Institute's Improving Health and Health Care plan would repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in its entirety. In its place, the plan envisions some components similar to those in the ACA:[3]
- insurance market exchanges, though these could be privately run;
- a ban on denying coverage for preexisting conditions, for those who have maintained continuous coverage;
- a limit on untaxed health benefits, though benefits above the limit would be taxed as taxable income, rather than with a 40 percent excise tax; and
- tax credits to help individuals purchase insurance, though these would be based on age, rather than on income.
Under the plan, individuals eligible for the tax credit who do not select a plan could be enrolled by default in plans designated by states. States could establish public high-risk pools for individuals with costly conditions who have not maintained continuous coverage. The plan would encourage the use of health savings accounts (HSAs) by offering a one-time tax credit for deposit in an HSA and raising the annual contribution limit. HSAs would also be included in Medicaid and Medicare program designs.[3]
The proposal also envisions allowing states to keep their health insurance exchanges, though regulations imposed by the exchanges on health plans would be removed. Private organizations could also establish exchanges to compete with the state-run platforms. The plan also proposes allowing the code for the federal exchange Healthcare.gov to be open source, meaning anyone could copy it. With the idea of encouraging competition between insurance companies, Improving Health and Health Care would allow insurance companies to sell health plans across state lines. There would be no mandate for insurers to cover a federally determined set of benefits, although states could still establish their own benefits mandates.[3]
Improving Health and Health Care would also make changes to Medicaid and Medicare. Federal funding for Medicaid would be fixed, and funds would be distributed to states through block grants. The plan specifies that increases in Medicaid costs would be financed with state funding, rather than with federal funding. Medicaid enrollees could choose whether to remain in Medicaid or private plans, with the help of the tax credit and state funding. State efforts to transition elderly Medicaid enrollees out of nursing home care and into home-based care would be encouraged.[3]
The Medicare program would be altered by offering beneficiaries premium assistance subsidies to purchase competing health plans, which would include traditional Medicare. Beneficiaries who did not select a plan would be enrolled by default in a private plan. The plan would combine Medicare Parts A and B, which cover hospitalization and physician and outpatient services, respectively, and would vary beneficiary cost-sharing by income. Beneficiaries would be required to make a minimum out-of-pocket payment without using supplemental coverage. Finally, the plan would divide traditional Medicare into regional plans and raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67.[3]
News feed
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms American Enterprise Institute Health Plan. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ American Enterprise Institute, "Improving Health and Health Care," accessed November 30, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 American Enterprise Institute, "Improving Health and Health Care," accessed December 1, 2016
| |||||||||||||||||||
