Health Care Partner Quoted in Law360 on Expectations for Obamacare Repeal in U.S. Senate

Health care partner Tom Bulleit (Washington, D.C.) was quoted in a July 11 Law360 article on expectations for repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

Among 11 health policy experts, Mr. Bulleit notes that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a “superb legislative tactician” and Mr. Bulleit predicts “slightly better than even odds of getting a Republican health care bill through the Senate.” Mr. Bulleit also notes that “the entire Republican caucus wants to vote for something they can call repeal - if they can simultaneously have a credible story that the repeal will protect their voters.” 

With the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) draft bill’s “protection for pre-existing conditions, and more substantial stabilization and opioid drug addiction treatment funds, I think the moderate Senators will accept a slower phase-out of the Medicaid expansion, lower federal subsidies allocated mostly based on income, permission for some skinnier [health care insurance] exchange plans, and acceptable language on abortion rather than defunding Planned Parenthood . . . . Senate conservatives will vote yes on that rather than a no that would preserve Obamacare,” Mr. Bulleit concludes.