Graham-Cassidy Affordable Care Act (ACA) Repeal-and-Replace Bill

This week, our In Focus section reviews the bill put forward last week by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). General consensus, the HMA Roundup included, viewed ACA repeal-and-replace efforts as largely defeated at the end of July, with the Senate’s failure to pass the Better Care Reconciliation Act. There is, however, an emerging view, which was shared by several speakers at last week’s HMA conference, that the Graham-Cassidy bill has a real chance of passing the Senate ahead of the September 30 deadline, at which point the reconciliation process expires and a bill would require 60 votes to pass the Senate. Below, we highlight key provisions of the Graham-Cassidy bill that impact federal funding to states, state Medicaid programs, and the Exchange and individual insurance markets, including both a block grant program targeted at higher-income and Medicaid expansion populations and a Medicaid per capita cap funding structure.

Every Wednesday, HMA publishes the Weekly Roundup, an information-packed resource that will keep you updated on industry news, trends in state health policy throughout the nation, and more.