Repealing the healthcare reform law is at the top of congressional Republicans’ to-do list this year. But as long a President Obama is in office, he will do anything he can to keep his administration’s marquee achievement on the books. So, as the new law lives on, provisions keep rolling out.
With the start of the new year, the Department of Health and Human Services implemented about a dozen reforms from the Affordable Care Act. Experts say that the 2011 provisions, like some already put in place, could prove popular with consumers-seniors especially-making the path to repeal a bit steeper politically for the GOP.
Medicare beneficiaries stand to gain most from the early 2011 changes. According to Professor Kenneth Thorpe, who heads the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University, two provisions will be especially tough for Republicans to eliminate. First, while seniors have been required to pay part of the cost of Medicare services like cancer screenings and annual physicals, the law makes such preventive services free for most beneficiaries. In addition, the law made these services free for those enrolling in new private plans starting last September. Another provision starts closing the coverage gap, also known as the “donut hole”, for seniors on the Medicare Part D drug plan. Now, beneficiaries with drug costs that surpass $2,840 within a year must pay full price for all drugs until their annual drug costs reach $4,550. The new rule offers a 50% discount on brand name medicines for those who fall in that gap. “If you do repeal the law, you’ll have to start charging people for preventive benefits. You’ll have to increase what seniors pay for prescription drugs,” says Thorpe. “Neither one of those [actions] would be very popular.”
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