Senate health care bill takes slower approach to House bill, expert concerns persist

The Senate health care bill, released to the public today, maintains much from the version the House passed May 4, 2017, but presents some key changes such as a slower phase out of Medicaid expansion and funding cost-sharing exchange plans for 2 years.“The most important take away is that both the House and Senate versions make efforts to stabilize the insurance market — the non-employer, individual insurance markets — in various ways,” Kristine Blackwood, from the international law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, told Healio.com. “There should largely be stability for the next couple of years until some of the changes in the bill would take effect. Most of the coverage changes are pushed out to 2020 and beyond.”