ACA Legislation

On March 6, 2017, the Republican House leadership unveiled their ACA replacement and Medicaid funding structure modification legislation proposal– the American Health Care Act.  This week, analysis of the Republican plan was released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  The CBO analysis states that the plan to repeal and replace the ACA would result in an additional 14 million Americans losing their current insurance coverage by next year.  The analysis projects that 28 million individuals would be uninsured by 2026 and that the number could rise to 52 million under the plan.  The CBO said that the those who would be most affected would be older, lower-income people.  The analysis also confirmed that the tax credits in the Republican plan would be more generous than the ACA for many higher-income Americans and less generous for low-income and older Americans.

To read the full CBO score, click here.

FY18 Budget

On March 16th, the Trump Administration released its initial fiscal year (FY) 2018 “skinny budget” proposal, outlining its priorities and vision for federal funding.  This budget proposal includes a $54 billion increase to defense spending and boarder enforcement with deep cuts in other parts of the budget to offset those increases.  The proposal eliminates the parity between defense and non-defense spending that had previously existed– meaning that any increase to defense spending would not come at the expense of non-defense spending. Click here to read NCSD’s full statement on the proposal.

Nominations

On Monday, the Senate confirmed, by a vote of 55-43, Seema Verma as the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.