Actual Events That Occurred As A Result Of The Affordable Care Act 2011 To 2014
- January, 2011: In 2011, insurance companies had to ensure the value for premium payments. If insurance companies did not spend at least 80% to 85% of premiums on care the difference is sent to customers in a refund.
- January 2011: A Florida judge rules that elements of the Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional.
- November 14, 2011: The US Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments in the Obamacare case brought by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business. It argues that elements of the Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional.
- January, 2014: Health Affairs published its most recent analysis of Medical Loss Ratio performance by major insurers.
- March, 2014: The New York Times reports that the U.S. Census Bureau, the authoritative source of health insurance data changed its annual survey so thoroughly that it became difficult to measure the effects of President Obamas health care law.
How Different Groups Of Republicans Voted
Many hard-line conservatives, including Freedom Caucus members and recipients of campaign contributions from the caucus’s political action committee, expressed opposition to the bill in its original form, but voted yes on Thursday after several changes to the legislation. Much of the Republican opposition to the bill came from members whose districts voted for Hillary Clinton.
Affordable Health Care For America Act
Jump to navigationJump to searchPatient Protection and Affordable Care ActAmerican Health Care Act
| This article is part of a serieson |
The Affordable Health Care for America Act was a that was crafted by the United States House of Representatives of the 111th United States Congress on October 29, 2009. The bill was sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel. At the encouragement of the Obama administration, the 111th Congress devoted much of its time to enacting reform of the United States’ health care system. Known as the “House bill, HR 3962 was the House of Representatives’ chief legislative proposal during the health reform debate.
On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed an alternative health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . In 2010, the House abandoned its reform bill in favor of amending the Senate bill ” rel=”nofollow”>reconciliation process) in the form of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
Senators Who Had Voted Against Obamacare Repeal Are Now Wavering
WASHINGTON Theres nothing like a deadline to get things moving on Capitol Hill, and with a Sept. 30 expiration date for the bill that want to use for an Affordable Care Act repeal, Senate Republicans who once seemed resolutely opposed to even the most modest Obamacare repeal suddenly sounded less resolute Monday.
The proposal authored by Sens. Lindsey Graham , Bill Cassidy and other Republican colleagues would still likely result in millions losing coverage. The bill would still cut Medicaid, albeit over a longer timeline, and states could still choose to undermine protections for people with pre-existing conditions. But the measure, attached to a reconciliation bill that allows a simple majority vote, would give states more flexibility in deciding those cuts and coverage decisions.
That flexibility has inspired Sen. Rand Paul to come out strongly against the legislation, castigating the bill as a rebranding of Obamacare. Conservatives should say no, Paul Monday.
The proposal, however, is seemingly less repellent to Sen. Lisa Murkowski , one of the three Senate Republicans who voted against the skinny repeal in July, along with Susan Collins and John McCain . Murkowski told HuffPost on Monday that shes undecided on Graham-Cassidy, as the measure is known, and that she and her staff were still looking to see how Alaska would make out under the bill.
Whether we repeal and replace Obamacare comes down to a few key senators, Meadows said.
Employer Mandate And Part
The employer mandate applies to employers of more than fifty where health insurance is provided only to the full-time workers. Critics claimed it created a perverse incentive to hire part-timers instead. However, between March 2010 and 2014, the number of part-time jobs declined by 230,000 while the number of full-time jobs increased by two million. In the public sector full-time jobs turned into part-time jobs much more than in the private sector. A 2016 study found only limited evidence that ACA had increased part-time employment.
Several businesses and the state of Virginia added a 29-hour-a-week cap for their part-time employees, to reflect the 30-hour-or-more definition for full-time worker. As of 2013, few companies had shifted their workforce towards more part-time hours . Trends in working hours and the recovery from the Great Recession correlate with the shift from part-time to full-time work. Other confounding impacts include that health insurance helps attract and retain employees, increases productivity and reduces absenteeism; and lowers corresponding training and administration costs from a smaller, more stable workforce. Relatively few firms employ over 50 employees and more than 90% of them already offered insurance.
Is The Supreme Court Likely To Save Obamacare
The Supreme Court is likely to leave in place the bulk of Obamacare, including key protections for pre-existing health conditions.
Conservative justices John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared in two hours of arguments to be unwilling to strike down the entire law a long-held Republican goal.
The courts three liberal justices are almost certain to vote to uphold the law in its entirety and presumably would form a majority by joining a decision that cut away only the mandate, which now has no financial penalty attached to it.
Leading a group of Democratic-controlled states, California and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives are urging the court to leave the law in place.
A decision is expected by late spring.
Laws Ripped From ‘the Handmaid’s Tale’
Then there are the political headaches that would be triggered by the overturning of Roe: the likely countermobilization of liberals and alienation of many moderates suddenly witnessing the painful realities of abortion bans, and stronger pushes in Republican ranks for a total national abortion ban and other extreme measures.
The Republicans incendiary antiabortion rhetoric could come back to haunt. If abortion constitutes the murdering of babies, as antiabortion language insists, and theres no longer a Roe v. Wade getting in the way, arent the Republicans obliged to ban it in every instance and every place, whether through the courts or the political process?
Will Biden get in the ring?: Patients shouldn’t have to fight this hard for an abortion
Expect emboldened right-wing politicians to push more legislation that sounds like its been ripped from the scripts of The Handmaids Tale.” Abortion bans that make no exceptions for victims of rape or incest a hallmark of the Mississippi law heading to the high court this fall. Bills like one that advanced recently in Pennsylvania that focuses not just on abortions but miscarriages, too categorizing miscarriages as deaths and requiring health care facilities to file death certificates and get burial permits. As if the would-be mother werent already suffering enough, now this extra burden, served up with a sinister insinuation about her miscarriage.
Rep Tom Reed Of New York
Reed, a leader of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, broke with his party on a handful of votes relating to the government shutdown at the start of the year. He told Roll Call after Wednesdays vote that he was concerned about his partys position on health care heading into 2020.
Hopefully, maybe, this puts a marker down with our leadership and with the Republican Party in the House and Senate, as well as across the country, that we owe it to the American people to show in black and white how were going to fix health care, he said.
The DCCC is not targeting Reed, who won re-election by 8 points in 2018.
Trump carried Reeds district, which stretches along the border with Pennsylvania, by 15 points. Reeds 2018 opponent, cybersecurity expert Tracy Mitrano, is running again. Inside Elections rates the race Solid Republican.
Trump: We’ll Soon See If Republicans Will ‘step Up To The Plate’ On Health Care
I’m not going to vote for something that’s a scaled down version, that’s a political punt,” Graham said earlier Tuesday. The South Carolina Republican will vote for the motion to proceed but added that a final product to fix the health care system should go through “regular order.”
Collins said the proposal wasnt described at the weekly Senate GOP policy lunch.
And so apparently that is an amendment that the leader would offer at the end, she said. I have no idea whats going into that.
And Republicans are considering making further changes to the repeal-and-replace plan. Administration officials and senators are discussing adding as much as $100 billion more to earlier drafts to help low-income people with premiums, Republicans said.
Before Tuesday’s vote, McConnell urged senators to take the first step to provide relief on this failed left-wing experiment.
Id like to reiterate what the president said yesterday. Any senator who votes against starting debate, he said, is telling America that you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare Thats a position that even Democrats have found hard to defend, McConnell said.
The fate of the vote was uncertain as recently as Tuesday morning. Paul, Heller and moderate Sen. Shelley Moore Capito waited until the final hours before the vote to announce they would support opening debate on the bill.
Heller said his support for whatever emerges later is not assured.
Rep Pete Stauber Of Minnesota
The freshman flipped a longtime Democratic seat in northeast Minnesota that Trump had carried by 16 points in 2016. Its a largely white, working-class district, where Trumps populist appeal resonated. The former Duluth police officer ran a campaign ad last year about his son Issac, who has Down syndrome, and he talked about the importance of insurance companies covering pre-existing conditions. Democrats are not targeting this seat in 2020. Inside Elections rates the race Likely Republican.
Changes Required By The Affordable Care Act In 2014
- October 1, 2013: Health insurance exchanges scheduled to open for 2014 enrollment begin writing policies that go into effect January 1, 2014.
- January 2014: People buying insurance on their own get subsidies to help them pay their monthly insurance premiums. Premiums are allocated on a sliding scale, as determined by income. Any individual earning over 400% of the poverty level does not qualify for subsidies.
- January 2014: When health insurance exchanges are operational, small business tax credits are up to 50% of premiums.
- January 2014: Insurance companies are required to provide health insurance to any adult aged 19 to 64 who applies for coverage.
- January 2014: To prevent people from waiting until they get sick to buy health insurance, the ACA requires all Americans to buy health insurance or pay a fine. The fine starts at $95 for an individual in 2014 and goes up each year until 2016, when the fine is $695 or 2.5% of a persons annual income, whichever is greater.
- January 2014: Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans , established in 2010 are scheduled to expire on January 1, 2014 once all major ACA reforms go into effect.
What Did Trump Say About Obamacare
President Trump has been actively trying to repeal the healthcare law since he campaigned for the 2016 presidential election.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to revoke Obamacare because it’s been an “unlawful failure.”
A brief filed in June asked the court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, arguing it became invalid after axed parts of it.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “President Trump and the Republicans campaign to rip away the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the crisis is an act of unfathomable cruelty.
“If President Trump gets his way, 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions will lose the ACAs lifesaving protections and 23 million Americans will lose their health coverage entirely.
“There is no legal justification and no moral excuse for the Trump Administrations disastrous efforts to take away Americans health care.”
Republicans also argue that some people are better off without Obamacare due to the fact that it does not cover those who need it most.
According to the provisions, people who earn just slightly too much to qualify for federal premium subsidies, particularly early retirees and people in their 50s and early 60s who are self-employed are not covered.
Trump endorsed a replacement to Obamacare in 2017 but fell short of passing the Republican-controlled Congress.
“The 2020 election will be pretty simple: if you want more sick people without healthcare coughing on you, vote Trump.”
Scotus Votes To Uphold Obamacare Based On A Technicality No Decision On Constitutional Issues
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a Republican bid that had been backed by former President Donald Trumps administration to invalidate the Obamacare healthcare law, ruling that Texas and other challengers had no legal standing to file their lawsuit.
The 7-2 ruling authored by liberal Justice Stephen Breyer did not decide broader legal questions raised in the case about whether a key provision in the law, which is formally called the Affordable Care Act, was unconstitutional and, if so, whether the rest of the statute should be struck down.
The provision, called the individual mandate, originally required Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a financial penalty.
It marked the third time the court has preserved Obamacare since its 2010 enactment.
Breyer wrote that none of the challengers, including Texas and 17 other states and individual plaintiffs, could trace a legal injury to the individual mandate.
Stop the censors, sign up to get today’s top stories delivered right to your inbox
Joe Bidens administration in February urged the Supreme Court to uphold Obamacare, reversing the position taken by the government under Trump, who left office in January.
After Texas and other states sued, a coalition of 20 states including Democratic-governed California and New York and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives intervened in the case to try to preserve Obamacare after Trump refused to defend the law.
A Final Vote Isn’t The Whole Story It’s Like Researching Your Ancestry And Going No Further Back Than Your Mother And Father
The day after she was one of three Republican senators to vote against her party’s proposal to repeal chunks of the Affordable Care Act, Susan Collins of Maine posted a press release that said: “Democrats made a big mistake when they passed the ACA without a single Republican vote. I don’t want to see Republicans make the same mistake.”
It was a nice nod in the direction of bipartisanship. But it also perpetuates a deceptive narrative, repeated often by Republicans, that they were completely excluded from the process that resulted in Obamacare. While it is true that no Republican voted for the final bill, it is blatantly untrue that it contains no GOP DNA. In fact, to make such an assertion is like researching your ancestry and going no further back than your mother and father.
Not only were Republican senators deeply involved in the process up until its conclusion, but it’s a cinch that the ACA might have become law months earlier if the Democrats, hoping for a bipartisan bill, hadn’t spent enormous time and effort wooing GOP senators only to find themselves gulled by false promises of cooperation. And unlike Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s semi-secret proceedings that involved only a handful of trusted colleagues, Obamacare, until the very end of the process, was open to public scrutiny.
More:Spare America a do-over on health care. Seize the bipartisan moment.
POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media
Requirements For Health Plans And Insurers
Coverage
The Affordable Care Act prohibited individual market insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. This policy is known as guaranteed issue. Guaranteed issue regulations had already existed for insurers selling employer-sponsored health plans, and the ACA extended this rule to the individual market as well.
The law also required insurers to allow young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26. Insurers were also required to allow people in the individual market to renew their health plans each year unless they did not pay their premiums.
Benefits
The ACA required individual and small group health plans that were offered both on and off the exchanges to cover services that fall into 10 broad benefits categories, called essential health benefits:
- Ambulatory patient services
- Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
- Prescription drugs
- Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment
- Laboratory services
- Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
- Pediatric services, including oral and vision care
Premiums
The ACA placed restrictions on the way individual and small group insurers set a plan’s The amount a consumer is required to pay for a health insurance plan. Premiums are usually paid monthly, quarterly or annually.:
Medical loss ratio
Stabilization programs
The House Has Voted 54 Times In Four Years On Obamacare Heres The Full List
Sunday marks the fourth anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, however you prefer to describe it.
While Democrats are struggling with whether to embrace the law or push for changes, Republicans are reminding voters that since they took control of the House in 2011, they’ve voted 54 times to undo, revamp or tweak the law. Here’s a full list of those votes, as provided by GOP aides. Dates with an asterisk denote a bill that also passed the Senate and was signed by President Obama:
Votes during the 112th Congress, from 2011-2012:
1.Jan. 19, 2011: The “Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act” would have repealed all of the Affordable Care Act. It passed 245 to 189 with three Democrats voting for it, but was never considered by the Senate.
2.Feb. 19, 2011: The House’s version of the fiscal 2011 continuing appropriations bill included several amendments that would have “severely limited” implementation of the law. It passed 221 to 202 with no Democratic votes and was never considered in the Senate.
The next few votes were on amendments added to the appropriations bill:
3.The Rehberg Amendment #575: Prohibited funding for any employee, officer, contractor or grantee of any agencies funded under appropriations for the departments of Health and Human Services and Labor to implement provisions of the law.
4.The King Amendment #267: Ensured that no money included in the appropriations bill would be used to implement the law.
Democrats Sought To Put Gop Colleagues On Record With Symbolic Vote
Democratic congressional campaigns have already made health care an early focus of their 2020 messaging, and House Democrats bolstered that effort Wednesday with a symbolic vote that sought to once again put Republicans on record on the issue.
Eight Republicans sided with Democrats on the nonbinding resolution, which the House adopted, 240-186. The measure condemned the Trump administrations support for invalidating the 2010 health care law in its entirety. The Department of Justice, in a new filing last week, backed a Texas judges decision to strike down the law.
Three Republicans New Yorks Tom Reed and John Katko and Pennsylvanias Brian Fitzpatrick had voted in January to authorize the House general counsel to intervene in the lawsuit to defend the health care law. All three also voted for the resolution Wednesday.
One Democrat 15-term Minnesota Rep. Collin C. Peterson bucked his party and voted against the resolution. Hes one of the last Democrats remaining in the House who opposed the 2010 health care law and is likely the last Democrat who can hold his heavily agricultural 7th District seat.
Democrats were otherwise united in supporting the resolution, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched positive Facebook ads touting their vulnerable members votes to protect families with pre-existing conditions.
Also watch: What if we switch to a single-payer health care system?
How Many Republicans Voted For Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, received no Republican votes in either the Senate or the House of Representatives when it was passed in 2009. In the Senate, the bill was passed with a total of 60 votes, or 58 Democratic Party votes and 2 Independent Party votes. The House passed the legislation with 219 Democratic votes.
The Affordable Care Act received 39 votes against it in the Senate, all from Republicans. One senator abstained from voting. In the House, the ACA received 212 votes against it, with 34 coming from the Democratic Party and 178 from the Republican Party. There were enough votes for the ACA in the Senate to prevent an attempt to filibuster the bill, while the House vote required a simple majority.
The ACA originated in the Senate, though both the House and Senate were working on versions of a health care bill at the same time. Democrats in the House of Representatives were initially unhappy with the ACA, as they had expected some ability to negotiate additional changes before its passage. Since Republicans in the Senate were threatening to filibuster any bill they did not fully support, and Democrats no longer had enough seats to override the filibuster, no changes could be made. Since any changes to the legislation by the House would require it to be re-evaluated in the Senate, the original version was passed in 2009 on condition that it would be amended by a subsequent bill.
Changes Required By The Affordable Care Act After 180 Days
- September 23, 2010 :
- Seniors are entitled to a $250 rebate to close the Medicare Part D coverage gap.
- A government website is created to allow people to search for information about health insurance companies, available plans, and other essential facts.
- Insurers are not permitted to exclude pre-existing conditions from coverage for children.
History Lesson: How The Democrats Pushed Obamacare Through The Senate
Twenty-five days of consecutive session on a bill that was partisan in the sense that Republicans were angry with it, but we still had the courage of our convictions to have a debate on the floor. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer , remarks on the Senate floor, June 19, 2017
To highlight the secrecy of the GOP health-care deliberations, many Senate Democrats have pointed out that the debate over the Affordable Care Act was the second-longest consecutive session in Senate history. Schumer even sought a parliamentary inquiry on the claim, and it was confirmed by the presiding officer, Sen. Joni Ernst
The Secretary of the Senates office notes that H.R. 3590 was considered on each of 25 consecutive days of session, and the Senate Library estimates approximately 169 hours in total consideration, she said.
The longest session, Feb. 12-March 9, 1917, concerned whether to arm merchant ships during World War I, shortly before the United States entered the conflict. That lasted 26 days.
But this statistic obscures a reality: The key work on creating the Senate version of the ACA was done in secret. Lets take a trip down memory lane.
Republicans Plan Healthcare Vote; Obama And Tv Host Denounce Bill
6 Min Read
WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans announced plans to vote next week on their latest bid to scuttle Obamacare even as a popular comedian who has become part of the U.S. healthcare debate denounced the bill and former President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned of real human suffering.
President Donald Trump, who has expressed frustration at the Senates failure thus far to pass legislation dismantling Obamas signature legislative achievement, said 47 or 48 Republicans back the bill, which needs 50 votes for passage in the 100-seat Senate, which his Republican Party controls 52-48.
We think this has a very good chance, Trump, who made replacing Obamacare a top 2016 campaign promise, told reporters during an appearance with Egypts president in New York.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul opposes the bill. At least five other Republicans are undecided on it: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, John McCain of Arizona and Jerry Moran of Kansas.
Republican Senator John Thune on Fox News said: Were a handful of votes short of having the 50 that we need.
As they worked to gather enough votes to win, after prior legislation failed in July, congressional Republicans and the White House were on the defensive after Jimmy Kimmel used his late-night TV show to blast the proposal and call Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, one of its two sponsors, a liar.
Related Coverage
Factbox: Trump on Twitter – Graham-Cassidy bill, Luther Strange, North Korea
