Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

The Senate’s second attempt to repeal and replace comes up short.

With expectations high since January, the GOP couldn’t compile enough votes to pass its latest legislation to trump the Affordable Care Act.

Background: In early May, the American Health Care Act — an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill — passed narrowly in the House of Representatives. But the Senate wasn’t so lucky with its release, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BRCA), which was pulled on July 18 after a lack of votes and confidence in the bill.

“I believe we must continue to push forward now,” said Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate in a prepared statement. “I regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of Obamacare will not be successful.”

Despite leaving Medicare intact, the unpopular bill drastically cut Medicaid, negatively impacting the most vulnerable in the nation. This legislation cut funding to important programs from women’s health organizations to home health to providers of children’s services, initiatives, and healthcare.

Many healthcare organization criticized the punitive measures in the legislation, offering insight and alternatives to BRCA. Among those against the bill was the American Medical Association (AMA), who congratulated those on the front lines for being part of the debate on healthcare and urged Congressional leaders to work together on future endeavors.

“Congress must begin a collaborative process that produces a bipartisan approach to improve healthcare in our country,” said David O. Barbe, MD, President of the AMA in a press release on the failed healthcare bill. Thanking the many participants in the debate, he added, that “hundreds of thousands of patients, physicians, and other providers” in their “grassroots response” were important to the outcome.

No replacement has been suggested at this time, but McConnell’s statement suggests he plans to push forward in spite of deep divisions within the Senate over healthcare reform.

To take a look at the AMA press release on the BRCA, visit https://www.ama-assn.org/ama-statement-health-system-reform.