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posted by on Saturday January 21 2017, @05:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the or-we-could-have-the-coverage-congress-has dept.

Trump Signs Executive Order That Could Effectively Gut Affordable Care Act's Individual Mandate

The Washington Post reports:

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nonpartisan budgetary agency determined that within one year of President Obama's signature healthcare reform law being repealed, roughly 18 million people would lose their health insurance.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."


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @09:43PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @09:43PM (#457103)

    For a family of 3 from ~2000 to 2010 (4th went off it at the 22 year old cutoff a year or two before the 24 year old extension happened)

    For reference the rates were ~150 each upon retirement, and rose to 750 and 350 alternating first on risk based on existing conditions, and then moving to age based.

    Just paying the premiums severely impacted the family. This was a sole provider household, but even factoring in 4 minimum wage jobs that would have been a huge cost, before factoring in other living expenses. Anyone low income would have had a hard time affording the 350 dollar a month insurance even before actually needing a doctor's visit or urgent medical care. The 750 would bankrupt almost anyone since that is as much as rent was in the area, before utilities.

    The system *WAS* broken before ACA, ACA DID make it worse rather than better, but both republicans and democrats are to blame for letting it happen. And I can only hope both groups and their voting constituents get held over the fire for it in the future.