Republicans succeeded in quashing Democrats’ efforts to reauthorize the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsides — at least so far. Now it’s time for Republicans to put forward their own health care reforms that will increase access to a wide variety of affordable health insurance plans. And that appears to be their goal.
For his part, President Trump now says he supports “SENDING THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE, WITH NOTHING GOING TO THE BIG, FAT, RICH INSURANCE COMPANIES.” (Emphasis in original.) Details are thin, as usual, so it’s not clear what he means.
Thanks for a great article, Merrill. Here are a few comments:
You propose that insurers be allowed to underwrite again. This will result in much lower costs for healthy persons, who are the majority.
Carriers will decline sick people. They will also “rider out” chronic conditions, as they did before the ACA and as they still do with disability insurance.
This will leave a sizable block of persons still in Obamacare. Let’s say that the number remaining is 5 million., and that the subsidy to each of them averages $10,000 a year.
That totals $50 billion — not the end of the world, but the cost of enhanced ACA subsidies today is $35 billion a year. There are no budget savings in your proposal.