BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics & Policy

Senate healthcare bill sees daylight

June 22, 2017 11:24 PM UTC

The Senate's healthcare bill released Thursday contains measures that would repeal taxes on drugs and would sunset an essential health benefits provision that ensures patients with specific conditions have access to medical services and products, including drugs. Those provisions were originally part of the Affordable Care Act, which the new bill is designed to replace.

Compared with its House counterpart, the newly released Better Care Reconciliation Act would roll back the existing law's Medicaid expansion more slowly while making steeper cuts to the Medicaid program. The Senate's bill would begin rollback of the ACA's Medicaid expansion in 2021, rather than 2020 as the House bill proposes. The rollback could cut into drug sales...