This afternoon, Senate budget chariman Mike Enzi introduced S. Con. Res. 3 for the FY 2017 budget. The bill includes reconciliation instructions to the Senate and House committees of jurisdiction to propose changes in law that reduce the budget deficit by not less than $1 billion. Those instructions are legislative code for "come up with your committee's recommendations on repeal of the ACA by January 27, 2016. You know what to do."
The budget resolution also includes a provision to essentially "bank" the savings from repeal for use at another time. That time would appear to be now - as part of reconciliation - or in the future. Sen. Bill Cassady has already indicated, that an immediate replacment provision could be to turn managment of most of the significant operational activities of the ACA over to the states. Since, the ACA primarily creates insurance for people at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Threshold, transitioning to a state-based system is probably a logical thing to do. States have been managing poverty programs like Medicaid and TANF for decades. Banking the savings from repeal permits Congress to provide assurances to the states that the current levels of funding will be maintained while each state works through their own tweaks and changes in the coming years.
Once the Senate votes on the budget resolution that action will move to the committees to develop their repeal language. It is going to be a very interesting January.
Link to the budget resolution can be found here.
Call with questions. The government never sleeps and neither do policy analysts.
Emily Evans
Managing Director
Health Policy
@HedgeyeEEvans
