Posted on 04/03/2019 8:50:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
"If the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we'll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare," President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday. Democrats and their media toadies attacked, claiming Trump will sucker-punch consumers with "junk" plans and abandon people with preexisting conditions -- even cause about 20 million Americans to lose coverage, as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman warns. These claims are lies.
Trump said the plan will be released after the 2020 election, but White House health experts have already put out reports suggesting what the Trump alternative will look like. The key pieces are a special fund for people with preexisting conditions, lower-cost plans and Medicaid reform.
The Trump administration wants to protect people with preexisting conditions by duplicating nationwide what several states have done to fund coverage for the sick separately. That's not abandoning the sick.
A tiny 5% of the population consumes nearly 50% of the healthcare. Forcing consumers to pay the same for insurance regardless of health status, as Obamacare does, is extortion. Actuarial experts explain that's why Obamacare premiums have almost tripled since 2013.
When healthy consumers in Alaska rebelled against skyrocketing premiums, the state set up a separate fund to pay the costs of seriously ill Alaskans out of general revenue, rather than hide the cost inside the premiums that healthy buyers pay. Premiums dropped 22% overall and 39% for bronze plans. Now, other states are experiencing similar success.
Is the money available for a nationwide guarantee? Yes. Coverage for chronically ill people in the individual market will cost about $20 billion a year, less than half the $55 billion spent subsidizing people to overpay for Obamacare. The remaining funds will be sufficient to subsidize premiums in the individual market, which will be substantially lower than now.
A February report from Trump's Council of Economic Advisers proposes this remedy, disproving whopper No. 1, that Trump will forsake people with serious illnesses. Democrats claim Obamacare is the only way to cover preexisting conditions. Wrong. It's just the unfairest way.
Trump's reform will also slash premiums by liberating consumers from having to buy plans loaded with items Obamacare mandates, such as pediatric dental care -- even if you don't have kids -- or maternity coverage -- even if you're 50. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ardently defends these mandates, warning insurance with fewer benefits is "junk" and insisting consumers need protection. That's whopper No. 2. Look who's actually being protected.
Insurance companies -- they helped write Obamacare. Mandated benefits are their profit protection, not consumer protection. The more a plan costs, the more profits the law allows insurers to make.
The Trump administration is trying to circumvent Obamacare's insurance rules and enable consumers to buy low-cost options such as short-term plans and association plans. But House Democrats just introduced a bill outlawing these options, which the Congressional Budget Office predicts some 6 million buyers will prefer within three years. Who's ripping coverage away from millions? The Dems.
That brings us to whopper No. 3, that Trump's reforms will cause millions to become uninsured. Here are the facts: Of the 20 million newly covered because of Obamacare, three-quarters went on Medicaid, not private health plans. Medicaid was originally meant for low-income women with children and the disabled. The health law added millions of able-bodied childless adults. Trump isn't revoking the Medicaid expansion.
But the administration wants able-bodied recipients to work. A shocking 40% don't work, even part time. The administration already backs state efforts to discourage freeloading, and a Trump replacement plan should make it nationwide. Healthy Medicaid recipients would be required to work, attend school, care for family or volunteer. In short, get off the couch.
Democratic pols say it's "cruel." Really? Why should taxpayers support healthy people who refuse to work, when jobs are plentiful?
Don't believe the dire predictions. Trump's reforms will enable millions priced out of Obamacare to buy insurance, while protecting people with preexisting conditions and getting the scammers out of Medicaid.
That is not a very high bar...
The best plan would be to get the Feds completely out healthcare, though.
Take away the toxic incentives of ObamaCare and most of us are willing to see improvement in our outdated “medical care’ in the US.
The problem is they are talking about Healthcare NOT Health Insurance.
Obamacare made my high deductible catastrophic care plan Illegal, but it was only $200 a month for the two of us and after the $10,000 deductible it covered 100%.
The New and Improved Obamacare plan they tried to sell me was $1200 per month with a $7000 deductible and they only pay 40% after the deductible. This is the definition of GRAND THEFT as far as I am concerned.
Healthcare is actually pretty cheap if you start paying it yourself and don’t depend on someone else to pay your bills.
“Healthy Medicaid recipients ...”
Why are Medicaid recipients healthy?
If Trump and the GOP have such a great health care plan, the time to release the details is BEFORE the 2020 election ... when voters can see how great it is, and vote accordingly.
“Forcing consumers to pay the same for insurance regardless of health status, as Obamacare does, is extortion. Actuarial experts explain that’s why Obamacare premiums have almost tripled since 2013. “
That’s not the only reason. Obamacare also forces middle class workers to pay for $1 a visit Medicaid benefits and Insurance Exchange subsidies to poorer people — and hides it in the premiums and the huge deductibles charged to the middle class.
No one ever seems to mention that escalating health care costs are connected to illegal immigration. All anyone has to do is show up at an emergency room in a large city to see it crowded with illegals wanting free healthcare, and as we know, nothing is free. Those costs have to be cover by paying patients.
People can back Trump, or they can hold out for ideological perfection and watch the Dems win all three branches of government.
I’d love just repeal.
The problem is that the uniparty eagerly dismantled everything we had before, and flat repeal is like demolishing a slum without any intention of rebuilding. Even if we know that something great will be built there later, it will be an eyesore to anyone who isn’t willing to wait for the future.
I’m hoping the ‘and replace’ language is just an assurance that people won’t be left flapping in the wind.
Second paragraph says that’s the plan!
These people are completely full of sh!t.
“Why are Medicaid recipients healthy?”
A big part of the reason was the Obamacare enrollment website. People just looking for affordable basic insurance were automatically re-directed to Medicaid if they happened to be in a low income situation like unemployment after filling out the online form. Add to that the propaganda from the media that it was illegal not to have insurance and the result was massive Medicaid enrollment.
Will you stop posting these lies, everyone knows ObamaCare was free healthcare for all.</s>
They REALLY are.
First is true insurance to cover the risk of unlikely but catastrophic events, similar to why you have fire insurance for your house. Premiums for this would be low because it's a "bet" you want to lose.
Second, is "routine" healthcare. This includes doctor office visits, routine tests, prescription medications, and minor office procedures. These are expected costs and the issue here is not to find out a way to get someone else to pay them but to make them affordable to the point where nobody objects to paying them. Your auto insurance protects you against accident risk. Nobody expects it to pay for gas or oil changes, but that's what today's "health insurance" buyers are expecting.
There are many solutions to this latter problem but they all start with the same thing: price transparency. Medicine is the only area of commerce where you have no idea what something will cost until after you buy it. And even then, you still don't know because the whole system is gamed to quote artificially high "prices" on "EOBs" that are then "negotiated" so that your insurance can falsely claim that they've "saved you money".
Unfortunately, there is zero incentive on the part of providers or insurers to address the root causes of ever-increasing medical costs precisely because the system is rigged such that all of the players are making huge profits on the current obfuscated scheme. Until something happens to force the various parties to face market reality nothing will really change no matter how "reform" is presented.
The second one is already here, I can walk in to my Doctors Office and get any procedure done that can be done in his office for 20% of what he Bills an Insurance COmpany. All by PAYING for it Myself!!!
I can also Fly to Oklahoma and get Major stuff done for the same 20% of what is customary.
The biggest problem is 3rd party payers which remove the client from the equation when it comes to treatment and cost.
Agree, but Trump is also a realist and just letting go will not fly in today’s environment...it will have to be phased back to the private sector and this will demonstrate that with less government intervention and obstruction, it can all work just fine....the hook is set so deep that even many of those who will benefit greatly would have trouble supporting what we really want.
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