Modern Healthcare interviewed Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health, for an article on how widespread the Republicans' efforts to roll back Obamacare are expected to be in 2015, now that the GOP is positioned to aggressively challenge the law after its big election gains in Congress.
Modern Healthcare reports that repealing the Affordable Care Act was a key campaign issue propelling Republicans to gain control of the Senate and their largest majority in the House since the Great Depression. Certain GOP proposals may also have some Democratic support. For example, scrapping the medical-device tax won the backing of some liberal Democrats in the past, passing the Senate by a 79-20 non-binding vote last year. Now, everyone will be watching where President Obama draws the line with his veto pen.
Ario told the publication that there could be common ground between Congress and Obama in abolishing the employer mandate. Analysts at the left-leaning Urban Institute concluded this year that scrapping the mandate would not significantly reduce coverage and would eliminate distortions in the labor market.
Read the article here.