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Trump Signs Executive Order That Could Effectively Gut Affordable Care Act's Individual Mandate
President Trump signed an executive order late Friday giving federal agencies broad powers to unwind regulations created under the Affordable Care Act, which might include enforcement of the penalty for people who fail to carry the health insurance that the law requires of most Americans.
The executive order, signed in the Oval Office as one of the new president's first actions, directs agencies to grant relief to all constituencies affected by the sprawling 2010 health-care law: consumers, insurers, hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, states and others. It does not describe specific federal rules to be softened or lifted, but it appears to give room for agencies to eliminate an array of ACA taxes and requirements.
[...] Though the new administration's specific intentions are not yet clear, the order's breadth and early timing carry symbolic value for a president who made repealing the ACA — his predecessor's signature domestic achievement — a leading campaign promise.
[Continues...]
Congressional Budget Office: Obamacare Repeal Would Be Catastrophic
U.S. Uncut reports
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its official analysis of the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare, and top Republicans hate it.
The CBO based its findings[1] on H.R. 3762 (the Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act), which was the 2015 Affordable Care Act repeal bill that passed the House of Representatives. The nonpartisan budgetary agency determined that within one year of President Obama's signature healthcare reform law being repealed, roughly 18 million people would lose their health insurance. In following years, when the expansion of Medicaid codified into the Affordable Care Act is also eliminated, the number of uninsured Americans would climb to 27 million, then to 32 million.
Additionally, for those remaining Americans who didn't lose their health coverage from the initial repeal process, health insurance premiums would skyrocket by as much as 25 percent immediately after repeal. After Medicaid expansion is taken away, premiums costs would have gone up by roughly 50 percent. The costs continue to climb, with the CBO estimating a 100 percent increase in premium costs by 2026.
CBO analysts particularly focused on H.R. 3762's repeal of the health insurance mandate that requires all Americans to have health insurance, and the bill's elimination of subsidies for low-income families that make health insurance more affordable. The CBO found that pulling out those cornerstones of the Affordable Care Act would "destabilize"[2] the health insurance market, leading to a dramatic increase in premium costs.
[1] PDF Google cache
[2] Duplicate link in TFA.
House majority leader says no set timeline on Obamacare replacement
The republican party still has no plan to put into place as a replacement for the ACA. In fact:
Asked how soon House Republicans could unite behind a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, McCarthy said Friday in a "CBS This Morning" interview, "I'm not going to put a set timeline on it because I want to make sure we get it right."
But McCarthy promised that an ACA substitute will be "one of the first actions we start working on."
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday January 21 2017, @06:54PM
The problem with healthcare in USA is that the prices are insane.
The prices are insane because insurance companies are allowed to arrange deals with hospitals.
Make those conventions illegal,
if an operation costs 1000$ everybody must pay 1000$.
It should be legal to stay uninsured, else insurance companies make a cartel.
Poor people get billed and they pay back or work for the state (part time) till they repay the debt.
Insurance is cheap only when it is not mandatory. Insurance is mandatory because that is the normal stage of capitalism devolving into statalism, not because the state ever cared about your health. If they did soda and sugar added food would be illegal.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @07:01PM
> Insurance is cheap only when it is not mandatory.
> It should be legal to stay uninsured, else insurance companies make a cartel.
Should and can are two different things.
Maybe it should be.
But it certainly can't be. Health insurance does not work unless the healthy subsidize the sick.
Basic economics. Sorry, the world simply does not work any other way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @07:41PM
Exactly, we've seen the rates start to increase at a decreasing rate because of a few things, but the big thing is the individual mandate. Barring people from waiting until they get sick reduces cost by ensuring that they're paying in while healthy, but it also ensures they have preventative care available.
The other thing was limiting the amount that health insurance companies could spend on things other than health care to either 15% or 20% depending upon whether it's a group or individual policy. Health care, shouldn't be an industry where investors look to make huge amounts of money. At best, it should be a slow trickle of funds.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @09:45PM
Except most of us "healthy" people got screwed out of the good jobs, owning homes, etc. How much else do you think you can get out of us?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @12:35AM
But it certainly can't be. Health insurance does not work unless the healthy subsidize the sick.
WRONG. Health insurance works, just as other insurance does, when those who pay for it but end up not needing it subsidize those who also pay for it but do end up needing it. Nowhere in here must people be strongarmed into paying for insurance.
Should we require people to pay for car insurance simply because everyone needs a car? Ridiculous. Can't believe this nonsense made it to score 3.
My right not to pay for insurance trumps your desire to be able to afford a contract with a private insurance entity.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @12:53AM
> Should we require people to pay for car insurance simply because everyone needs a car?
We DO require that everybody who has a car buy car insurance.
Exactly like requiring everybody who has health buy health insurance.
If you would prefer not to purchase health insurance you are welcome to completely dispose of your health in any way you see fit.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @01:01AM
We DO require that everybody who has a car buy car insurance.
Wrong again. We require people to have liability insurance. This insures others against damage done by your vehicle. It does not insure your vehicle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @02:09AM
A distinction without a difference.
The point is that the insurance is mandatory for car ownership.
But you do you. Take whatever solace you can in being triumphantly righteous rather than logically consistent.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @10:18PM
You're a retarded little nigger, aren't you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @05:53PM
The problem with your analogy is that those who do not buy this "liability" health insurance still cost others for their care when they get to go to the emergency room for care. (thus equating to your liability)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @05:30AM
We DO require that everybody who has a car buy car insurance.
While at the same time failing to strictly regulate the same companies that people are forced to buy from. What a lovely system.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday January 22 2017, @09:45AM
The fallacy I detect is the axiom that health insurance works. USA have the worst performing healthcare if we take into account the resources poured in.
Also, replying to another guy, the point is not the determination of the cost of an operation, let the market or whatever work there. The point is that the price must be equal for everybody. No conventions. Those make costs balloon for the uninsured.
The only upside I see with mandatory insurance is that, by getting money no matter the health status, the insurance/pharma beast has less incentive to poison you.
Abstract
This analysis draws upon data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and other cross-national analyses to compare health care spending, supply, utilization, prices, and health outcomes across 13 high-income countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These data predate the major insurance provisions of the Affordable Care Act. In 2013, the U.S. spent far more on health care than these other countries. Higher spending appeared to be largely driven by greater use of medical technology and higher health care prices, rather than more frequent doctor visits or hospital admissions. In contrast, U.S. spending on social services made up a relatively small share of the economy relative to other countries. Despite spending more on health care, Americans had poor health outcomes, including shorter life expectancy and greater prevalence of chronic conditions.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2015/oct/us-health-care-from-a-global-perspective [commonwealthfund.org]
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @07:18PM
The whole point of a market is to figure out what something should cost; nobody knows whether that operation should be 1000$—and though it should be that much today, the value/cost/whatever might change by next month!
The key is to open up health care to the market forces, and this can be done by marketing prices for such services, rather than keeping them hidden away behind a wall of inscrutable bureaucracy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @09:34PM
Exactly - as demonstrated by the Surgery Center of Oklahoma [surgerycenterok.com], where there is a literal menuboard of available procedures with their price listed up-front.
Worked so well that the US fedgov changed laws to make any new similar outfits illegal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @09:54PM
And a split between parts and labor with labor taxed at a flat rate based on the number of people required for a particular operation on the vehicle...ahem, person!
This won't keep all cheating out of the system, but California's Bureau of Automotive Repair is a bunch of dickholes who do exactly that. If you're cheating the system they get up in your face. If you've been honest, but haven't been following the rules, they get up in your face. If you've dotted your i's and crossed your t's and they can't find anything else wrong, they will probably get out of your face and if a complaint was made find against the complaintant. (Latter doesn't happen very often, but only if you didn't cover your ass suitably.)
Healthcare is already like this, it had been getting worse by the year. If people don't want humane care, then it is time we give them industrialized care.
Let us see how they feel about it after this.