The ObamaCare Cleanup Begins

One of the misconceptions and specious arguments made by the Democrats/Leftist/Progressives, DLPs, is that the Republicans were empty handed when it came ideas about health care and health care and health insurance reforms to replace Obamacare. The fact is they have always had such ideas and policies waiting in the wings. And now with a chance to implement them they will first stop the bleeding as in saving the insurance companies and stop to HUGE rate increases. Then come out with a complete and workable plan to replace the one the Democrats put in place without proper vetting and have refused to even admit the problems let alone solve them or admit a replacement will be the path to take else we end up with an even bigger bill where the first part is voided by the second part. We need to find a way to start over that is what it appears the Republicans are doing, doing what the Democrats should already have done and save us from the last 4 years.

The ObamaCare Cleanup Begins
Early executive action can improve short-term insurance markets.

All of a sudden the press is filled with stories about Republicans supposedly retreating from their promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Liberals are claiming vindication and conservatives are getting nervous, but the stampede to declare failure is premature. The orderly transition to a more stable and affordable health-care system is merely beginning.

As with much else in the Donald Trump era, people should avoid rushing to conclusions. Too much significance is attributed to Republicans adding the word “repair” to their vocabulary, as if this represents a policy change. The insurance markets really do need repair, and doing nothing isn’t realistic amid ObamaCare’s downward spiral.

Likewise, the GOP retreat in Philadelphia last month was contentious, according to leaked audio, but debating the merits of different ideas is how political parties form a strategy. Republicans now recognize that they can’t blame President Obama for insurance disruptions, even if his Administration caused them. They also increasingly understand that they’ve been handed an armed bomb and need to be careful and serious when defusing it.

The exchanges are ailing and fragile—beset by high and rising premiums and a wave of insurer exits. The Health and Human Services Department announced Friday that final enrollment on the federal exchanges for 2017 dropped by about 400,000 from last year. “In spite of the best intentions of Washington and the industry, the intended goals of the ACA have not been achieved. Millions of Americans remain uninsured, and still lack access to affordable health care,” Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said on an investor call, expressing the business consensus.

Uncertainty is inevitably priced into premiums, and benefits and rates for 2018 started to be designed and set months ago. They’ll be approved by regulators in the spring, so Mr. Trump’s HHS nominees, Tom Price and Seema Verma, need to move fast to bring more predictability to the markets.

One of the President’s first acts was to sign an executive order to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay” rules that burden individuals, states and business in order to “create a more free and open health-care market.” The specifics are waiting in an HHS proposed rule about “market stabilization” now under review by the White House budget office.

This rule likely includes short-term measures to deregulate ObamaCare’s most onerous provisions. Technical reforms could be immediately reflected in lower premiums. These include relaxing the essential benefits mandate or the price controls that limit how much rates can vary from person to person. The Obama HHS turned the individual mandate into swiss cheese, creating “special enrollment periods” that allow people to dip in and out of insurance at will. Ensuring continuous coverage may be a priority.

Another useful interim change to reduce gaming would be to shorten the ObamaCare “grace period,” a 90-day window that requires insurers to cover consumers who aren’t paying their premiums. A McKinsey study found one of five exchange enrollees stop paying at some point during the year, and half of them re-enrolled in the same plan the next year, availing themselves of three months of “free” coverage.

Congress could also help stabilize the exchanges by suspending the 10-year $145 billion tax on the insurance industry. The costs will be passed on to consumers in higher rates, which is why Congress and the Obama White House agreed to a one-year suspension for 2017. Oliver Wyman estimates that another delay would offer immediate premium relief of 3% for 2018. This would buy some goodwill amid debates about who owes who what in various ObamaCare reimbursement programs.


Meanwhile, the work to replace the law in the longer term is well underway. The House Energy and Commerce Committee had a legislative hearing on four bills last week, and other power centers are making progress. House Speaker Paul Ryan said he hopes the repeal and replace proceedings will conclude by the second quarter.

The defining failure of ObamaCare is that too few people find its centrally planned insurance either affordable or valuable, despite the subsidies. The Republican-Trump bet is that more competitive markets will do a better job delivering coverage that people want and need.

Mr. Ryan’s scheduling goal may be too ambitious, and maybe health-care reform round II will break down in intra-GOP disarray about ideological purity and implacable Democratic opposition. But the panic is excessive based on the evidence so far.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-obamacare-cleanup-begins-1486424917

 

Republicans are going to punt on Obamacare.

Just today I heard the (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)-grabber say it may be next year, or the year after.

So much for all that "On Day One . . ." crap.

 

Read the above.

 

THEN come out with a plan? They've had seven years! The fact is they are the dog that caught the bus and now they're trying to figure out what to do with it!

Today, Trump said it would take awhile.

And we are waaaaaaay past day one!

- Trump
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/healthcare-reform

 

once republicans touch it, they own it.... anytime a insurance company raises rates, it's republicans fault

 

Calling Trump a republican is dishonest

 

"The defining failure of ObamaCare is that too few people find its centrally planned insurance either affordable or valuable, despite the subsidies. The Republican-Trump bet is that more competitive markets will do a better job delivering coverage that people want and need."

Trump believes taking away the states right to make laws regarding insurance and federalizing it will make it cheaper

could be true, but are republicans no longer for states rights?

 

Trump FanBoys always seem to forget that health insurance and health costs were a top five concern of American voters
for the 40 years BEFORE Obama took office.

It is not some magical problem that can be cured by simply removing Obamacare. The fastest increases in
Health care costs came between 1986 and 1992 and between 2000 and 2003.

I say take Obamacare as a starting point and start tweaking - cause once it is repealed, Republicans are going to be afraid
to touch the Health Care issue ever again - cause then they will own it.

 

The full implementation of barrycare is this year. The real implosion is this year.

 

I do not have an ACA policy and do not get a subsidy. I have no skin in this game, but I certainly understand the fear many people are feeling given the current Administration's willingness to just throw crap out there with no regard for the consequences and no clear understanding of what they are doing.

The current policies will likely remain in effect for 2017. After that, who knows. Fortunately this is something that requires Congressional action as a check on the lunatic in the Oval Office. While I may not always agree with him, Paul Ryan is a number cruncher so he will be the one calling the shots on this instead of Bannon/Trump.

 

That's why I say to start tweaking it - not repeal it.

 

Yep the repuke solution has been there all along. No preconditions, buy across state lines, healthcare "savings" accounts, get rid of the medicaid
provisions and bring back the junk policies. Emergency rooms replace preventative health care.

Simple, no?

 

85% of the country had health insurance before Obamacare, and almost 90% of them were happy with their coverage.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/mar/10/george-will/will-says-95-percent-people-health-insurance-are-s/

The uninsured rate is currently about 91.4%

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/07/obamacare-pushes-nations-health-uninsured-rate-to-record-low.html

So to decrease the uninsured rate by about 6%, we had to drastically change the health coverage of everybody, forcing them to pay higher copays, much higher deductibles, and causing millions to lose their doctors (despite promises to the contrary). The program is imploding as more and more providers are leaving the program altogether.

Yes, what a great success story.

 

No they were not emply handed. Their ideas just involve getting rid of the stuff of the ban on annual maximums on claims, and the prohibition on dropping people for pre-existing conditions. They want to go back to the days when an insurance company could legally drop you because your grandfather died of cancer, on the grounds that you have a risk of cancer in your family, and limit your annual claim to $1000 (I used to have this type of insurance. It barely covered two checkups a year, let alone any actual healthcare costs)

That is the GOP plan. Get rid of everything that actually keeps people from being screwed over by insurance companies.

The only idea that have that is new is getting rid of the ban on interstate insurance sales.

 

exactly....

"Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs " 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/business/26walmart.ready.html?pagewanted=all

"Wal-Mart executives said the memo was part of an effort to rein in benefit costs, which to Wall Street's dismay have soared by 15 percent a year on average since 2002. Like much of corporate America, Wal-Mart has been squeezed by soaring health costs. The proposed plan, if approved, would save the company more than $1 billion a year by 2011."

"Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid."

an interesting Article, Walmart claims Healthcare raising by 15% a year back in 2005 under complete republican control...

 

Lol. as if...

when the Obamacare 'roll-out' debacle occurred, leftist far and wide screamed "REPUBLICAN PLAN!"

 

Didn't say it was a great success - just said it was a problem BEFORE Obama and
health care costs were rising quickly BEFORE Obama.

There were no "golden days" before Obama when it comes to healthcare. Something had to be done. Take Obamacare as the
starting point and start working on it. If it repealed, no party will touch healthcare for decades.

 

The conservaives have always had the superior plan. No more preconditions. Buy across (chuckle) state lines. Start those medical "savings" accounts. Bring back the junk policies. Scrap the medicaid expansion and by all means make those lazy kids stop sponging off "mom's" policy. We have emergency rooms , we don't need preventive care.

Nirvana!

 

The overwhelming majority of the country had health insurance and were happy with it. Regulations could have been slashed in what is the most heavily regulated industry in the country to allow more market based competition, which would decrease costs similar to how the prices of technology come down over time with increased competition, but the left wouldn't have allowed that. They want a top-down Government controlled program, just like in almost every situation, and when they couldn't get single payer, they concocted this disastrous piece of legislation that was designed to kill off private coverage so that people would flock to the next progressive politician promising them free health care.

 

None of this addresses the crushing regulatory/reporting burden and abysmal reimbursement insult government has placed upon the actual providers of healthcare. Welcome to third world physicians who despise americans, second tier, non-physician providers, and sub par students who will fill the rolls of medical schools in the future.

 

And in 2007, 73% of Americans said the were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the availability of reasonably priced health care.

Republicans had opportunities to work on healthcare - they always punted it down the road (except for Romneycare which looked
very similar to Obamacare).

This is not a problem unique to Obamacare.

 

It's great now, isn't it? It's getting closer to Europe!

"Would you like to make an appointment with Dr. Mohamed Al Jihad who is booked for the next 4 months, or would you like to schedule with our Physician's assistant who just graduated last week?"

- - - Updated - - -

And yet almost 90% of Americans were happy with their health care coverage. Sounds like an inconsistency. I know, personally, my copays have tripled thanks to Obamacare, but at least I get a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing some poor Obama voter will get yet more free stuff in exchange for their reliable Dem vote.

 

some insurance execs got a bigger bonus due to the individual mandate

will republicans get rid of the individual mandate?

.

 

I read it.

The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is frequently host to this sort of nonsense.

It's laughable to assert that Republcians has any ideas on health care "waiting in the wings". They've been waiting for 24 years, now and we haven't seen a thing.

Far from the WSJ promoted fantasy taht as yet unnamed GOP actions will drive premiums down, just about every expert in the industry, including the companies themselves, have predicted the exact opposite.

 

Just making a point here, see where you might loose credibility? The OP took time to cite his message where you offer "Just today I heard the ", I heard, as special as it my be to you, hardly instills any credibility to your reply.

Just saying