Instead of the current tax penalty for failing to secure coverage, the bill would introduce a penalty for purchasing insurance after letting coverage lapse: To
encourage people to maintain “continuous coverage,” insurers would impose a 30 percent surcharge on premiums for people without coverage for 63 days or more.
The G. O.P.’s High-Risk Strategy for Health Law Repeal -
By ROBERT PEAR and THOMAS KAPLANMARCH 11, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump and House Republicans are pressing forward with a high-risk strategy to repeal
and replace the Affordable Care Act, disregarding the views of medical professionals and potentially imperiling the party’s political future in conservative states where many voters stand to lose their health care.
The effort could cause upheaval in an already roiled insurance market next year, as Republicans face voters for the first time with Mr. Trump in the White House — though
that turmoil would happen only if the plans manage to clear a divided Senate.
Republicans coming together to get job done!” And Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Louisville,
Ky., on Saturday to assure residents that “the Obamacare nightmare is about to end.”
What is clear is that 2018 — a year that Republicans say will be messy — will loom large for Republicans as they move toward a vote on the measure.
“If they do not deliver, the Affordable Care Act will stay in place, and Republicans would pay a price in the next election.”
The bill may need to move to the right to get through the House, where a formidable bloc
of conservatives wants more aggressive steps to rein in the growth of Medicaid.
