U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin joined a
group of five Democratic senators and one independent who are proposing a list
repairs to the Affordable Care Act.
“We have to fix it, repair it.
We’ve got to have insurance and we’ve got to have people healthier, but they
have to be responsible (changes) too,” Manchin said on Thursday’s “The Real
Story with Gretchen Carlson” on Fox News.
“We can’t force products into the
market where the market is not going to accept them.”
Those making the proposals with
Manchin (D-W.Va.) are senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.),
Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Angus King (I-Maine).
“We’ve had some moderate,
reasonable people who have sat down and we think we have an a lot of our
Republican colleagues that will join us on this and these responsible changes,”
said Manchin.
The proposals include:
— A bill to restore startup
funds for new consumer-driven health insurance cooperatives, like those already
operating in 23 states.
— Allowing state insurance
regulators to develop models for selling health insurance across state
lines.
— Providing a new lower-cost,
high-deductible option called the Copper Plan to add to the existing Platinum,
Gold, Silver and Bronze plans in the federal exchanges. The Copper Plan would
still meet the ACA’s coverage requirements.
— Extending the Small Business
Health Care Tax Credits and expand those credits to include businesses with
fewer than 50 employees. The current cap is 25 employees.
— Expanding the option for
voluntary coverage to employers with fewer than 100 employees.
— Streamlining and simplifying
reporting requirements for healthcare coverage.
— A bill that would let family
members working for the same business, on the same employer health plan, count
as one full-time equivalent employee.
— Permanently allowing people to
enroll for healthcare coverage through insurers or other certified web-based
entities and not just healthcare.gov.
— Opening access to agents and
brokers to assist with enrollment in healthcare plans on the ACA exchanges.
It was not immediately clear
if U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would bring any or
all of the proposals to the Senate floor. White House support for such
changes is also questionable.
“I would hope they would look at
the reasonable changes we’re trying to make that fits the American public,”
said Manchin. “People do want health care, but they want affordable health
care. They’d like to keep what they have. They’d like to be able to stay
healthy, like to be able to have incentives and rewards.”
As of Thursday afternoon, federal
officials said six million people had enrolled for healthcare coverage through
the exchanges.
Monday is the deadline for enrollment, an ACA mandate, through www.healthcare.gov. Those who
begin the enrollment process by March 31 will have additional time to complete
that process because of a recently announced extension.
