Congress
With Congress on recess there hasn’t been a great deal of progress on a budget deal. However, one issue that continues to surface is the extent to which enhanced premium tax credits for Marketplace enrollees should be renewed. Politico reported that Senate Democrats are considering putting that as a condition for approving a budget deal.
Updated CBO Score
CBO released their updated/final score of the effects of HR1 (reconciliation bill). Overall, they estimate that the bill would increase the number of uninsured by 10 million over the 10-year window. CBO will be releasing more detailed data on their updated projections/effects of the bill in the future.
Tariffs
The reported US and EU trade agreement would impose a 15% tariff on pharmaceuticals. Previously pharmaceuticals had been exempted from many of the tariffs that had been imposed. This would potentially have a material impact on drug prices as nearly half of all active ingredients in brand name drugs are manufactured in Europe. It should be noted that the agreement can still change/require ratifying by different EU institutions.
ACA Data
CMS published new effectuation data on enrollment in the Marketplaces. In particular they published data on the first five months of data. Their findings do show very different net attrition patterns between states. SBM states have generally seen less net attrition (and in many cases net increases) compared to FFM states.
