Washington was busy this week, but the progression of changes to the Affordable Care Act took a backseat to Senate nomination advancements. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any updates:
2017 Open Enrollment Ended on January 31st
The open enrollment season, likely the last under the Affordable Care Act, ended this week on Tuesday. It’s certainly unclear what will happen under new healthcare laws, but it seems like everyone seems to be on the same page about people being able to keep their current coverage. So, it was a good idea to enroll in a plan this year to ensure you’ll have some level of coverage going forward.
Rep. Tom Price Nomination Update
This week the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Rep. Tom Price’s secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services nomination, voted to move Price’s nomination into the full Senate, despite Democrat protests. After two days of Democrats not showing up for the hearing placing the Committee in a standstill, Republicans got the approval of the Senate Parliamentarian to move forward without the required Democratic presence for the vote.
Repeal, replace…repair?
This week, we’ve started to see a shift in dialogue surrounding what exactly will happen with the Affordable Care Act moving forward. Republican Rep. Leonard Lance has been quoted as saying that the Republicans want to “repair the ACA”, which has been echoed by other members as well. Paul Ryan noted that it’s simply a matter of semantics and that “the best way to repair our health care system is to repeal and replace the ACA. It’s not an either-or.” Only time will tell what the new healthcare reforms will entail.
