12/19/18 UPDATE:
“The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) is a broad-based and bipartisan coalition with a proud tradition of working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to solve our most pressing healthcare challenges. CAHC does not endorse the Texas court ruling, nor the obviously unlikely prospect of a comprehensive repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act in the new Congress. Rather, we believe that – regardless of the final outcome – it should be an opportunity for conversations on how to improve healthcare affordability.”
“There is still a need to address untenable provisions of the healthcare law that increase burden and drive up costs – for example, the Health Insurance Tax, certain employer reporting requirements, and added restrictions it placed on health savings accounts. There has long been strong bipartisan support for these efforts and they can be accomplished while preserving the law’s coverage gains, its all-important protections for pre-existing conditions, and other advances. At the same time, CAHC also believes that more can be done to expand choice and flexibility under the law through improving the usability of Section 1332 waivers, allowing consumers to vote with their feet by making premium subsidies portable, and supporting private exchange enrollment tools, to name a few.”
“Since 2001, CAHC has worked with Democrats and Republicans alike to lower healthcare costs, improve quality, and spur better outcomes for all Americans. Indeed, the impetus for our formation was to champion a refundable, advanceable healthcare tax credit – a key pillar of the ACA. We look forward to continuing our bipartisan work and building consensus across divides in the 116th Congress,” said a spokesperson for the Council for Affordable Health Coverage.
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PREVIOUSLY:
(December 16, 2018): The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) – a coalition of employers, insurers, life science companies, PBMs, brokers, agents, patient groups, and physician organizations – responded today to a verdict from a federal court in Texas which found the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, ruling that the law must be scrapped due to Congress’s zeroing out of the individual mandate penalty last year.
CAHC President Joel White released the following statement:
“At the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, we have long said that the ACA’s burdensome mandates are bad medicine for healthcare costs. Indeed, we previously testified to Congress that ‘the reality is that for millions of [patients], health coverage is less affordable and more out of reach than when the ACA was enacted’ and, last year, CAHC offered lawmakers a roadmap for thoughtful ways to replace the law with more patient-centered solutions. We also recognize that many Americans rely on coverage in the current market and have urged Congress to protect these individuals in any future reforms,” said CAHC President Joel White. “The court ruling presents an excellent opportunity for Congress and the administration to fix what is broken in healthcare: affordability. The November election was about kitchen table healthcare issues. Consumers want to know they can obtain insurance that covers their pre-existing conditions at a cost they can afford. Unfortunately, the ACA is a deeply flawed law that has failed to bend the health cost curve and left too many without affordable coverage. We will be closely monitoring the appeals process and stand ready to work with lawmakers to ensure that this verdict is an opportunity for positive, consensus reforms that solve our pressing healthcare affordability challenges.”