Former President Obama took a victory lap Thursday on seventh anniversary of his signature health care law even as Republicans had planned to formally begin the process of gutting it in celebration.
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Joseph Antos, a health economist with the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C. -based conservative think tank, said the ability for young adults to stay on family plans represents a “critical mistake” within the health law, cutting off insurers from a large, healthy demographic that likely would be able to afford a health care plan.
As of now, there are 16 counties in a region of Tennessee around Knoxville that have no insurers committed to sell coverage on the exchange next year. The Congressional Budget Office projection of 24 million fewer in 10 years is probably too dire, but there is little doubt that the number is substantial. “It was a major takeaway of money, coverage and dignity from hardworking Americans”.
After Republicans were forced to pull their bill to replace Obamacare from the floor of the GOP-controlled House on Friday, Trump blamed Democrats and vowed to let Obamacare “explode”.
Moments later, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that Republicans were nixing their high-stakes health care bill after failing to get enough support from within their own party.
The reflex of the Republican leadership was understandably to pass the awkward bill quickly and move on.
While Freedom Caucus members are targeting the essential health benefits provisions first, they want the GOP bill to tear down even more of Obamacare’s expansive insurance reforms.
It’s easy to demagogue the idea of removing those regulatory protections. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that some proposals suggest excluding maternity coverage for men and older women, somewhat along the lines of Senator Roberts’ thinking on the matter. “One answer is because someday you may be sick and that’s the way that insurance works”, says David Cutler, a Harvard University economics professor who helped design the Affordable Care Act.
Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds who focuses on health care, said that for consumers, 2018 looks uncertain, with a “death spiral” of decreasing competition and increasing premium rates ramping up.
“It is our responsibility to keep legislating”, said Representative Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican and one of the firmest holdouts in a group of conservatives who objected to the bill. There are a lot of moving parts to legislation. One plan offered a maternity rider that cost more than $1,600 a month on top of the regular premium.
Also, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told House Republicans last week that he plans to weaken the provision by changing the regulations governing it. It was about whether the wealthiest nation on Earth would make sure that neither illness nor twist of fate would rob us of everything we’ve worked so hard to build.
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Most egregiously of all, at this point the tempo is apparently being dictated by Donald Trump’s personal pique at recalcitrant House members. She criticized the bill for causing millions to lose their insurance and causing insurance premiums to increase, especially for seniors. But it’s a particularly egregious way of thinking about this particular bill, since candidate Trump would have thoroughly denounced it.
