Jeb Bush Sees 'Transition Plan' to Get Enrollees Out of ObamaCare

Jeb Bush this week unveiled his proposal to repeal and replace ObamaCare, one that would include an unspecified "transition plan" of roughly 18 months for the 17 million people currently covered under the Affordable Care Act, reports AP. Bush laid out some of the particulars of the overall plan in a speech and in an op-ed in the Union-Leader of New Hampshire, decrying the "skyrocketing health insurance premiums" he says have been caused by the new law. The New York Times thinks Bush's plan would indeed lower individuals' costs but probably wouldn't cover as many as ObamaCare does. Some highlights:

• People would get tax credits to buy catastrophic plans.
• Individual and employee mandates would be eliminated, reports Forbes.
• People could contribute a maximum of $6,650 to their health savings accounts, up from $3,350. In general, Bush wants to make plans more "portable," reports NBC News.
• Control on regulating insurance would shift from the federal government to the states, and states would get what NPR describes as a "block grant-like Medicaid program" to cover low-income people.

• Bush wants to overhaul the FDA to spur innovation and get drugs on the market more quickly.
• "His reliance on low-cost catastrophic health plans could reduce premiums for some consumers," observes the Times, "but could also leave them with fewer health benefits, and he would also loosen the Affordable Care Act’s popular guarantee of coverage, regardless of a person’s pre-existing medical conditions."
• Bush also has "a controversial proposal to limit the tax breaks on high-end health insurance that Americans receive through their employers which in some ways resembles ObamaCare’s unpopular Cadillac tax on expensive health plans, slated to take effect in 2018," reports Politico.

(More Jeb Bush stories.)