New Graham-Cassidy Draft: States With Hold-Out GOP Senators Favored, Potential Higher Costs Remain For Those With Preexisting Conditions

Health Affairs September 25, 2017
Timothy Jost

Late on the night of Sunday, September 24, 2017—only 72 hours before a final vote on the bill is expected—a new version of the Graham-Cassidy bill was released. Although much of the bill is the same as the draft released earlier, there are significant changes. On initial review, these seem to be aimed primarily at two purposes:

undergirding the argument of the bill’s sponsors that it does not exclude coverage for people with preexisting conditions and,
substantially increasing funding for states represented by some of the GOP Senators who have expressed concerns about the bill.

This post analyzes the non-Medicaid provisions of the new version. A post summarizing the Medicaid changes will follow.

Unchanged Provisions

The new draft...