Washington Health Care Partner Authors Ninth Column on “Repeal and Replace” in Bloomberg BNA’s Health Law Reporter

In The News
December 7, 2017
Attorneys:
Thomas N. Bulleit

In Bloomberg BNA’s Health Law Reporter on Dec. 7, health care partner Tom Bulleit (Washington, D.C.) published his ninth article in a series in which he examines efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare).

The article, titled “Repeal and Replace a Year Later: Attempted Murder on a Disoriented Express,” discusses a range of actions that the Trump administration has taken to bring about the demise of what the President himself has called the Obamacare “disaster.”

In the context of Congress’s failure so far to enact legislation repealing the ACA, Mr. Bulleit outlines several steps the administration has taken to weaken important parts of the law by executive action, including defunding the cost-sharing reductions that assist lower-income persons with the costs of healthcare; suggesting a weaker approach to enforcement of the individual mandate; diluting the Obamacare exchange risk pool by expanding access to more limited health plans; and making ACA enrollment less easy.

Echoing many other analysts, Mr. Bulleit predicts that these efforts are likely to lead to bifurcation of the individual health insurance marketplace, with the young and healthy choosing less comprehensive, and thus less expensive, health plans, and older and sicker patients who are not poor enough to qualify for subsidies facing increasingly unaffordable premiums. 

Attorneys

Thomas N. Bulleit
Thomas N. Bulleit
Retired Partner