WASHINGTON – Municipal market participants and others need not panic over the Republican threats to repeal the Affordable Care Act because health care plans are locked in under the ACA until at least 2019, a key member of President-elect Trump's transition team said Thursday.
Some state and local government groups and health care organizations have warned that a repeal of the ACA will increase costs for states and counties and could adversely impact the ratings of hospital and health care bonds.
"There's no reason for any kind of panic. The sky is not falling," said Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., a member of the transition team's executive committee, appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "There's no reason to worry [for] the next two years."
Collins, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's health subcommittee, said health care plans "are locked in stone" for 2017 and are already under negotiation for 2018.
"We're not going to pull the rug out from anyone," said Collins. "There's not going to be any changes in 2017. There's not going to be any changes in 2018."
"We're talking about new [health care] plans in 2019 or later," he said.
Asked why the Republicans are talking about repealing the ACA now, Collins said, "We are sending the message to America that as we move beyond, say, a two-year window, we're going to have a new plan."
Republicans don't like the ACA's employer mandate, its employee mandate, the health insurance tax on insurance companies and the medical device tax.
"Those are the pieces we're going to be repealing," he said. "Those will be repealed immediately … but it's not going to impact the patient seeing the doctor and the coverage that they'll have."
Collins said that he's seen five or six versions of plans from Republicans to replace the ACA. "We're going to have to bring those together to have one plan."
The goal "is to have a plan in place in time for the insurance companies that will be designing the programs for 2019 and beyond," he said.
Republican lawmakers will discuss the proposed plans and meet with the many stakeholders, including insurers, hospitals, governors, medical groups and individuals. They will also hold hearings, with the hope of having some kind of replacement plan later this year, he said.
"The replacement, you'll see in the June to July timeframe," he said, adding, "We don't have it yet. It's going to be patient-centric."
Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee followed Collins on the program and said in response to Collins' remarks: "Sounds to me as though the rhetoric hasn't caught up with the plan."
The Democrat from Massachusetts chided the Republicans for all the talk of repeal.
Neal said the Republicans should act like the Democrats did when proposals for Medicare, Part D, the prescription drug benefit, were proposed by President George W. Bush's administration. The Democrats didn't like the initial proposal, but, "There was no effort to repeal it," Neal said, adding, "Instead, we improved it."
At least five committees in the House and Senate have jurisdiction over health care and related revenues --- the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, and the Senate Finance Committee.
