After weeks of “will they or won’t they” that rivals some of the great TV sitcom near romances for suspense (even though it was considerably shorter), House Republicans passed the American Health Care Act (“AHCA”) just before going on recess (more information on the bill here and here). As with the version that was released in early March, this is designed to meet the Republicans’ promise to “repeal and replace” the ACA. As before, in many respects, the AHCA is less “repeal and replace” and more “retool and repurpose,” but there are some significant changes that could affect employers, if this bill becomes law as-is.
Below is a brief summary of the most important points (many of which may look familiar from our prior post on the original iteration of the AHCA . Where we did not make any substantive changes from our prior post, we have indicated those with the words “No change”):
- Employer Mandate, We Hardly Knew You (No change). The ACA employer play or pay mandate is repealed retroactive to January 1, 2016, so if you didn’t offer coverage to your full-time employees, then this is the equivalent of the Monopoly “Get out of Jail Free” card.
- OTC Reimbursements Allowed from HSAs and FSAs, Without a Prescription (No change). This goes back to the old rules that allowed these reimbursements. This would begin in 2018.
- Reduction