Summary
TRP Health Policy has prepared a section-by-section chart that provides a brief synopsis of each provision of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and assesses their probability of surviving Byrd Rule review in the Senate. We indicate in green, yellow, or red the likelihood each section will satisfy the Byrd Rule’s criteria for budget reconciliation measures – and avoid being stricken – with footnotes providing our rationale for those we consider to be in question.
The Senate’s Byrd Rule applies only to measures considered under reconciliation procedures. Among other criteria, provisions can be stricken by the Byrd Rule if they do not have an impact on the deficit or their fiscal impacts are “merely incidental” to their non-budgetary implications.
The Senate Parliamentarian has considerable latitude in interpreting the Byrd Rule, so please consider this analysis as our best guesstimate of where those official decisions will fall. Provisions challenged by Senators and determined not to meet Byrd Rule criteria are stricken from the measure unless the Senate votes to waive the rule, which requires 60 votes.