Trump vows ‘insurance for everybody’ in Obamacare replacement plan

originally posted by: bgrenual
I think he's for real. I think he's going to deliver.

I want to know how he's going to pay for it without the same premium increases Obama experienced. Insurance companies will accept losing profits. Maybe he will make Mexico pay for it.

a reply to: Swills

No, that's not what Obamacare is trying to do. ACA is a handout to insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and so on. On top of that, the ridiculous 30hr work week nonsense actually hurts more people than it helps. But hey, throw a "no pre-existing condition" clause on it, and you'd have to be an idiot not to support it, right?
Trump is actually talking about a federal provider, bypassing insurance companies all together. Pharmaceutical companies will essentially have to barter with him... or his program. So, while the Affordable Care act actually has nothing to do with the actual price of services other than the fact that it subsidizes them, Trump plans to actually correct the market instead of catering to them.
Socialism works when everyone works. Look at the military. Healthcare for everyone! If not everyone works, then you either need to throw out the whole idea or manipulate the market to the point where subsidies are sustainable. I can't say Trump will pull it off, but I can say it's something the Obama administration refused to acknowledge... along with other related mandates that have hit the wallets of the "not quite marginalized enough to be a cool hash-tag because of the color of their skin" crowd that turned on his party after 8 years of bigoted and idiotic support.

a reply to: damwel

Because he's basically proposing a federal plan. Kinda like how the VA works. If people flock to the plan then healthcare providers, pharma co's, etc, will all have to bargain with him... or his plan. Basically, it's an Affordable Care plan that actually means to make things affordable... not just subsidize a big fat gift to the healthcare industry while mandating citizens pay for it.
You may have never noticed this if you've been perfectly health your entire life, but every health plan negotiates prices with various providers. Get a CAT scan sometime. Think your insurance pays the 10k price tag on that? Nope. They pay a fraction... and CAT Scan machine manufactures still aren't going out of business. It's like... when you buy a car, do you think the great deal you got yourself actually means they aren't making any money?

a reply to: bender151

So you are either saying that you support universal healthcare or that the government should be a monopoly on providing health insurance.

Not that my opinion matters, but I've changed my position on Obamacare, I still think the law needs tweaking, and perhaps some reworking.

But I've been home for the last week dealing with an illness which will result in surgery soon, and extensive treatment afterward. I did some research, and because I changed jobs and insurance coverage with a gap between with no coverage without the new laws and protections this for me would have all been denied, written off as preexisting condition and frankly I would have been F'd.

As I look into it more, if I make it through all of this, I'll still have money in the bank, a job and healthcare coverage.. literally, a life saver for me.

Maybe insurance companies become government administrative contractors !!

Some states are using the method for Medicaid.

Illinois plans

a reply to: canuckster

That is not even remotely true. The numbers are incomparably larger for medical spending than foreign aid.

Foreign aid is a very small part of the Federal budget, < 1%, and often has direct benefits to the US to achieve US goals.

a reply to: ausername

2 things.

1. I hope your situation goes well. Even though I probably come off as a jerk, I still don't want people to go through health problems.

2. Does this mean that all this time, you were ignoring or rejecting the similar stories of other people? The pre-existing conditions issue was one of the major sticking points during the healthcare debates. There were numerous stories of people paying into their insurance for years only to be dropped from their coverage when a disaster struck, all because they were found to have "pre-existing conditions" which basically voided their insurance. And others simply couldn't get private insurance in the first place because of those pre-existing conditions, meaning they'd have to pay the upfront prices for all medical treatments. That's one of the big reasons why medical bills caused so many personal bankruptcies.

Not only would a repeal of the ACA/Obamacare take us back to that catastrophe, but there's something else people fail to talk about. Allowing out-of-State plans to compete with in-State plans sounds good at face value. But those out-of-State plans will not be required to have in-State networks of doctors and medical services. Their customers will be in for a rude awakening when they try to use their Texas-based insurance plan in New York, only to find out that everything will be at "out of network" costs.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Being totally honest here, I didn't give it a whole lot of thought one way or another until it impacted me personally.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Trump is the only president who actually started doing things before he officially started as president. Most of them just sit around and pick their people and forget about the job they need to do.

I could not agree more Ricky..... I think there is a new breed in charge now.
Just look at how our New Prime minister (Trudeau) told Lockheed Martin that he would hold the door for them after they said if the F35 deal was cancelled they would leave Canada along with over 1000,00 jobs. He also said that he would immediately begin talks with Boeing to deliver the F18 Super Hornet. And he did just that!
Back on topic, Nation wide health care works very well here in Canada.........

From a personal perspective I have spent over 200 days in the hospital and endured over 7 operations in two different cities and have kicked the bucket 7 times in the past 38 months and not once did we have to worry about the cost.

Trust me it works and it brings a calming sense to what would be a stressful situation.

Regards, Iwinder

a reply to: ausername

I respect the honesty.

If/when they repeal the ACA, I'm hoping something is done immediately about the pre-existing conditions issue. For all the talk about terrorism and other things, it's health complications which kill the vast majority of Americans. Just heart disease and cancers kill something like 1.1 million Americans combined every year.

Insurance for everybody would solve the problem.

Subsidy efficiency is directly related to subscriber pool. If everyone was insured, it would be the cheapest possible payments.

Obamacare tried to fix this.

They primarily tried to insure people that were not insured first, while insuring many Americans, they failed at this goal. The goal was EVERYONE without insurance gets Obamacare, any number under everyone is failing.

They then failed at conglomerating private insurance, or doing anything to encourage the second act of getting everyone insured under a mutual subsidy pool.

Obamacare has commendable aspects, but in terms of it's goals, it was a total failure. This is in part, to these goals being near impossible to pull off for a single administration in the first place. Or maybe even at all.

It slips through every single time the direction of universal healthcare is to conglomerate subsidy pool, and the partisan efforts become more important, as the Democrats want to buy other non-related stuff, and the Republicans want to kill public insurance entirely.

If Trump's choice is just massive cuts, which breaks nothing, this might wake people up to the nature of the true problem being the money of all insurance not being mutually held together.

If he just ends the program, that's not the end of the world either if he can conglomerate private insurance subsidy. The issue is like a broken record at this point.

If he ends the program and does nothing, then honestly, we should just end Doctors too, as the ignorance in our society extends to the very top of positions office and economic status. But it will temporarily actually improve the economy, so Trump supporters will have their 'win'.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

I 100% agree.

I hope they can leave partisan politics and special interests out of this and realize the impact they could have on the lives of millions.

originally posted by: damwel

originally posted by: bgrenual
I think he's for real. I think he's going to deliver.

I want to know how he's going to pay for it without the same premium increases Obama experienced. Insurance companies will accept losing profits. Maybe he will make Mexico pay for it.

That is the nice thing about Nation wide health care the insurance companies are out of the picture .
Regards, Iwinder

a reply to: sooth

Maybe universal health care in the US is unavoidable, but there is kind of a slick workaround to give healthcare back to the individual states. I read this link, that some people have been passing around, and it is not impossible, if the new administration gives healthcare back to the states, that everyone could be covered.

Here is the link:

www.vox.com...

In this way, some states may choose universal health coverage, like maybe Hawaii and Vermont, while others privatize it again with free market insurance.

This part was interesting:

"The Trump administration could build on the Baldwin-Price legislation and the Section 1332 to let the states replace Obamacare. They could get rid of Obamacare’s essential benefits package so states had more flexibility in designing insurance, and they could lower the percentage of health costs that insurers have to cover to allow catastrophic care plans.

But they could also demand that states show they will cover more people at a lower cost than Obamacare in order to qualify under the program, and they could give grants to states to help them defray the cost of improving their health systems. (How would they pay for those grants? The same way they intend to pay for their tax cuts. Fiscal responsibility is only a constraint when Republicans want it to be.) As for the states that are happy with Obamacare, they could be left alone — if you like your health care system, you can keep it. "

a reply to: Fowlerstoad

There's always been a lot of profiteering in the health system. Originally, doctors and pharma companies charged what they liked and the insurance companies paid out. But the insurance companies wouldn't cover those with long term conditions. Those patients were left to seek help from university hospitals. Then the insurance companies formed HMO's where they provided a restricted selection of doctors. That pissed off a lot of people becauae they were barred from the physicians they could trust. There was also a lot of funny business with deductibles and X-rays / MRI scans being blocked due to the cost.

Obamacare tried to fix these but everyone just raised their rates and deductibles because getting insurance was now mandatory. But so many people are refusing to pay that rates and deductibles have had to go up while at the same time, the most expensive doctors have been rejected.

Other countries have a public insurance system, with some hospitals and clinics being privately run. But they accept patients at agreed rates with the government.

January 20, 2017

In between inaugural events today, President Trump stopped by the Oval Office to sign his first Executive Order to ease the way for ObamaCare repeal.

""President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday commanding federal agencies to try to waive or delay requirements of Obamacare that impose economic or regulatory burdens on states, families, the health-care industry and others.

The order declares that Trump’s administration will seek the "prompt repeal" of the law, and that the government should prepare to "afford the states more flexibility and control to create a more free and open healthcare market."
The immediate impact of the order was not clear. Enrollment for insurance plans sold under the Affordable Care Act for 2017 closes at the end of this month.

Spicer also said Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, would issue a memo to government agencies ordering a freeze on new regulations. Trump has pledged to repeal two existing regulations for each new one his government issues.""

Source: www.bloomberg.com...

Our office receives at least 6 notices from HHS (Health and Human Services) every single week that contain new requirements. This crap has been going on for 6 frickin years. I'm so thankful that it stops HERE.. NOW.. TODAY!

a reply to: Fowlerstoad

In this way, some states may choose universal health coverage, like maybe Hawaii and Vermont, while others privatize it again with free market insurance.

Hawaii does not have universal health coverage. It has mandated employer provided insurance for those who work more than 20 hr/wk. The law covers only the employee.
labor.hawaii.gov...

a reply to: Phage

Hawaii is very expensive. Poor people receive the equivalent of $60,000 a year (as of 2013) in welfare benefits.
www.hawaiireporter.com...

a reply to: carewemust
Yes. It is expensive.
What does that have to do with the fact that Hawaii does not have universal health coverage?