Health Care Reform 2.0: Alternatives to the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has expanded health insurance coverage and provider payment policy changes are underway, but the ACA has faced several judicial challenges and continual calls for repeal and replace. Alternatives for health care reform have been proposed from across the political spectrum. The papers in this session explore alternatives to the ACA as potential next steps in the progression of health care reform. The goal of this session is to consider the landscape of different proposals and to estimate the potential effects on health care spending. The first paper evaluates the CARE Act, an alternative proposed by Republican Congressmen, which would eliminate ACA’s mandates and Medicaid expansion and replace it with premium support tax credits. The second paper explores two national single-payer scenarios, one that provides uniform and universal coverage and the other that provides income-dependent catastrophic coverage. The final paper explores alternatives for state health care reform through Section 1332 waivers under the ACA.