Eight months later, Elizabeth Warren FINALLY admits it'll take at least TWO bills to achieve M4All | ACA Signups

As Andrew Sprung (my other ACA guru) says...more like ten bills. 
Eight months later, Elizabeth Warren FINALLY admits it'll take at least TWO bills to achieve M4All | ACA Signups
by Charles Gaba

 

For several years now, I've been pleading with the powers that be in Congress to pass two major healthcare reform bills:

• FIRST, a robust ACA 2.0 upgrade bill which would:
  • REPAIR the law from the Trump/GOP sabotage inflicted on it to date (weakening of 1332 guiderails, cut-off of CSR funding, slashing of the marketing/navigator budget, zeroing out of the mandate penalty; reinstatement of restrictions on short-term plans/etc.);
  • PROTECT it from any further damage (the Trump Administration's attempt to make the subsidy formula stingier; their attempts to require separate invoices for abortion; etc.);
  • FIX THE GLITCHES which were inherent in the bill as passed into law in 2010 (such as the Family Glitch, the Skinny Plan glitch, etc.); and
  • STRENGTHEN the law by expanding it (including removing the 400% FPL subsidy cliff; beefing up the subsidy formula; requiring wider network minimums; etc.)

This first bill would also hopefully include some sort of Public Option as well, although even without one the above improvements would still be a quantum leap ahead of the current istuation.

After these improvements were baked in, there'd then be followed by a SECOND BILL A FEW YEARS LATER, which would be the next Big Thing. This, of course, is where the Democratic healthcare debate has gotten very ugly over the past year or so: Should we go with mandatory, "pure" Medicare for All or would a robust Public Option be the stopping point...with the assumption being that if the PO was good enough, everyone would eventually choose it over a private policy anyway, thus making it a moot point?

I feel so strongly about this "two stage rocket booster" approach that I even included it in my "Where the Democratic Candidates Stand" summary table from a few months back. As you can see at the bottom, while the candidates keep pushing for one particular bill/plan or another, I've been urging them to pass ACA 2.0 first and then worry about the next phase later on, whether it's "pure" M4All or my preferred long-term plan, Medicare for America (which amounts to "Medicare for All with a PRIVATE Option").

KEEP READING (it's long and wonky with graphs and charts)