The Better Care Reconciliation Act: Assessing the Senate's AHCA Counterpart

On June 22, the Senate unveiled the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), the upper chamber’s counterpart to the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the House of Representatives’ “Obamacare” repeal bill. While it’s unclear when the Senate will vote on the bill — or if the bill has the political support to pass through the Senate as currently written — it’s important for health care stakeholders to get educated on the policy proposals contained in the current text. To assist in this process, we have updated our chart providing a comparative analysis of the BCRA, the AHCA and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that highlights each bill’s treatment of a number of core issues.

The chart evaluates the following issues:

• Insurance subsidies
• Individual mandate
• Employer mandate
• Young adults
• Essential health benefits
• Prohibition on annual and lifetime limits
• Age-rated limit
• Health status premium underwriting
• Preexisting condition coverage
• Relief for high-risk individuals
• Medicaid expansion
• Traditional Medicaid
• Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
• Tax provisions