Category: Employee Benefits

American Health Care Act passes the House, faces uphill battle in Senate

After months of hand wringing and arm twisting, the GOP goal of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed its first legislative test today in the House of Representatives.  The American Health Care Act (AHCA) was narrowly approved by the House today in a vote of 217-213.  The bill received no democratic support.
 
This vote comes 41 days after the bill was pulled from the floor on March 24 when the GOP realized they didn’t have enough votes for the bill to pass.  Since then there have been two amendments to the AHCA that flipped enough votes to result in passage today.  

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The Healthcare Landscape – Part Two Paradigm Shift: Understanding the Competitive Advantage of Health

The video below is the second installment in our series sharing highlights from the Business North Carolina 2017 Healthcare Round Table event that we hosted in our Greensboro office last month.  The full discussion is featured in the May issue of Business North Carolina Magazine.

In this video, Sean Willoughby-Ray, Benefits Practice Lead/Vice President, discusses how health is a competitive advantage –  for individuals and businesses.  

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The Healthcare Landscape – Part One The Pharmacy Problem: Dealing With the Dramatic Increase in Pharmacy Costs

Last month, Scott Benefit Services hosted the Business North Carolina 2017 Health Care Round Table in Greensboro.  Sean Willoughby-Ray, Benefits Practice Lead/Vice President, along three other healthcare …Continue Reading

AHCA Pulled Prior to Vote, ACA Remains

Around 3:30 p.m. on Friday House Speaker Paul Ryan came to the conclusion that the GOP didn’t have the votes in the House of Representatives to pass the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and pulled it off the floor prior to a vote. 

This outcome came after a very tumultuous three weeks for the AHCA legislation, including multiple amendments, a CBO score that showed 24 million more people would be uninsured under the law, and what was perceived as rushed committee mark-up meetings and votes to keep the legislation moving forward.

In a prepared statement late Friday, Speaker Ryan acknowledged that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the “law of the land for the foreseeable future.”  Lawmakers have differing opinions as to how quickly they will resume efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, but most think it will not be an immediate priority.

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GOP Releases The American Health Care Act Proposed legislation would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act

Last night, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives released their proposed repeal and replacement bill, called the American Health Care Act.  The proposed legislation is a two-part bill, one coming from the Ways and Means Committee, and the other from the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Most notable for employers, the proposed legislation repeals the employer mandate and there will be no cap on the employer tax exclusion. (A full summary of the major impacts of the bill is included at the end of this post.)

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