Bob Atlas, a Strategic Advisor and President of EBG Advisors, Inc., in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, and Timothy J. Murphy, an Associate in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, authored an article in Law360, titled “A Look at the Potential Impact of BCRA’s Medicaid Reforms.” (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
On June 22, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released his proposal for reforming the Affordable Care Act, referred to as the Better Care Reconciliation Act. The fate of this plan is in doubt due to disagreement among Senate Republicans and much unhappiness with the bill among constituents and health industry stakeholders who are making their voices heard. However, GOP legislators are very determined to live up to their longstanding promise to undo the ACA, so a modified version of BCRA very well may pass.
If enacted in anything close to its current form, BCRA would have a deep impact on health care providers, managed care plans and consumers, not to mention states and their taxpayers. As with the American Health Care Act (“AHCA”) passed narrowly by the House of Representatives in May, BCRA’s most far-reaching changes are to Medicaid, the joint state and federal safety net program that pays for medical care for some 70 million low-income children, parents and childless adults, pregnant women, the elderly and people with physical and mental disabilities.
Underscoring the significance of BCRA’s Medicaid reforms, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that, relative to current law, BCRA would reduce federal Medicaid spending by $772 billion over the next ten years and result in 15 million fewer Medicaid enrollees by 2026.