Anthem, a major health insurance provider, threatened Wednesday to further withdraw from the Obamacare state exchanges in 2018 if Congress is unable to pass substantive health care reform.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer Joe Swedish told reporters on a conference call Wednesday that uncertainty surrounding congressional funding for Obamacare subsidy payments could force Anthem to withdraw its 2018 proposals in states where it currently sells plans on the exchanges.
Anthem withdrew from Nevada, Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana in 2017, naming market volatility and rampant uncertainty in the marketplace. (RELATED: Anthem To Drop Out Of Nearly All Nevada Counties)
The announcement comes as the Senate is currently embattled in debates regarding the best way to reform the U.S. health care system.
There are currently three proposals lawmakers are weighing: the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), a bill that would institute full, clean repeal of Obamacare without a replacement and a drastically watered down version of Obamacare repeal, called the “skinny repeal.” (RELATED: Here’s The ‘Skinny” On The Senate’s Last Push To Repeal Obamacare)
The “skinny repeal” is believed to be the only way Republicans can pass a bill through the Senate to send to the House for final negotiations. Senators conducted a procedural vote on the BCRA Tuesday evening, where the bill was met with firm opposition, garnering 57 no votes.
The repeal-only measure, called the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017, is the other bill. The clean repeal bill would entirely repeal Obamacare without a replacement, but passing it is rather improbable. The Congressional Budget Office projected the repeal-only bill would leave 27 million Americans without health coverage in 2020, a figure that is likely to cause moderate Republicans and Democrats to vote against the amendment.
The skinny repeal bill is likely to include a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate and the medical device tax.
Senate leadership is desperate to get to 50 votes on some version of health care reform. Leadership is telling wayward Republican senators that they need to pass a bill, literally any bill, so they can get to negotiations with the House. At that point, the sell is they can fix the legislation.
There best option appears to be the skinny repeal, which is expected to be offered after senators vote on the two other options.
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