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Lee and Moran Announce Opposition to BCRA; McConnell Changes Course

Last night (Monday, July 17) Senators Jerry Moran and Mike Lee simultaneously released statements that they would not vote to proceed to debate on the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). With Senators Rand Paul and Susan Collins already in the “no” column, this announcement made it clear to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he would not be able to proceed as planned. In a statement released last night he stated, “Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful.” He then stated, “In the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period.”

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Senate Releases Updated BCRA Draft

The Senate released an updated draft of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) on Thursday, July 13, 2017. To view the full text of the bill, click here. To view the updated section by section summary, click here.

There were a few major changes to the original draft issued on June 22, including:  

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What Drives Personal Auto Insurance Rates?

If you drive a vehicle, you are required by law to have personal auto insurance. But why do we need it?

Consider hitting a car and injuring three passengers. If both your vehicle and the other vehicle are valued at $20,000 and considered total losses, and each passenger has medical claims of $20,000, this quickly adds up to $100,000! That’s an amount most individuals wouldn’t want to have to include in their annual budgets.

The function of insurance is to accept the risk from many people to pay for the losses of the few. Personal auto insurance protects drivers from having to personally pay for all the damages they are responsible for resulting from an auto accident. Even though you paid your insurance company much less in premiums, the insurance company pays these higher amounts on your behalf based on your policy coverage.  

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Senate Releases Draft Health Care Bill

UPDATE – Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their cost estimate which indicated that they expect the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) to reduce the deficit by $321 Billion over 10 years. The CBO also estimates that under the BCRA 22 million more people would be uninsured in 2026 compared to the current law. Click here to read the full CBO report.

Additionally, the Senate updated the draft bill yesterday to fill the gap due to the repeal of the individual mandate. They added language that would require an individual who had more than a 63-day gap in coverage to complete a six-month waiting period before their coverage would be reinstated.
 
Regarding the timing of an expected vote on tbe bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced earlier this afternoon that they would delay the vote and continue the discussion around the bill until after the July 4th recess.  McConnell had stated previously that the goal was to vote on the bill before the end of this week.

On Thursday, June 22, the Senate released a “Discussion Draft” of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA).  Click here to view the draft.  At this point, the bill is still open for amendments and awaiting a CBO score at the beginning of next week. This means that the contents of the existing draft bill will most likely change prior to an expected vote before the Senate leaves for the July 4th recess next week.  

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Cyber Risk: What Is Your Company Doing About It?

Businesses of every size and in nearly every industry are facing increasing cyber risk. Cyber threats that seemed far-fetched for many companies only a few years ago are very real today – as evidenced by the recent WannaCry ransomware attack that spread to over 150 countries last month. Results from the 2017 Cyber Risk Survey indicate that many businesses are not adequately protected and lack the knowledge and resources to prepare for, or respond to, a cyber-related incident.  

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