One of Mr. Trump’s first acts as President was to sign an order on Obamacare
(The Hill) President Trump on Friday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to “ease the burden of ObamaCare.”
The order did not direct any specific actions, instead giving broad authority to the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies to take actions available to them under the law to ease regulatory requirements from ObamaCare.
It pushes agencies to target provisions that impose a “fiscal burden” on a state or a “cost” or “regulatory burden” on individuals or businesses.
It is not clear what practical effects will come from the order.
But, they can guess
But the move could eat away at the law’s individual mandate by granting more exemptions to people so they do not have to purchase insurance.
The Washington Post is a bit hysterical over this
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.
That sounds like a good thing, does it not? Not in Liberal World
“Potentially the biggest effect of this order could be widespread waivers from the individual mandate, which would likely create chaos in the individual insurance market,†said Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. In addition, he said, the order suggests that insurers may have new flexibility on the benefits they must provide. (snip)
But in giving agencies permission to “waive, defer, grant Âexemptions from or delay†ACA rules, the order appears to create room for the Department of Health and Human Services to narrow or gut a set of medical benefits that the ACA compels insurers to include in health plans that they sell to individuals and small businesses.
Mr. Trump, nor those in HHS, cannot do away with the mandate. That’s part of the actual law, unlike, say, the Contraception mandate, which was created out of thin air. But, they could change the hardship exemption, and provide other exemptions, just like Obama did. Because the Mandate portion is pretty specific about the timeframe which applies the penalty/tax/fee, and what that penalty would be. Perhaps the hysterical writer of the Washington Post article, and those who wrote others, should read the actual text of the bill. The hardship exemptions could be broadened to make everyone exempt. Team Trump could simply use the “you have another hardship” portion, and allow whatever people say is a hardship.
They could narrow or gut some medical benefits not included in the actual text of the bill. HHS was give broad latitude to create certain benefits, and others, like the aforementioned Contraception mandate, were simply invented.
The very fact is, Democrats said if Republicans want to do something about Ocare, we had to win elections. We did. As Obama stated, elections have consequences. Deal with it.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Actually, President Trump’s executive order and its subsequent results might make the laughably-named Affordable Care Act less unpalatable. The Obama Administration, in its zeal to push contraception against religious objections, was even requiring nuns in convents to carry contraception coverage. If the Trump Administration did away with that kind of stupidity and intrusiveness, there’d be less displeasure with the ACA.
Much of the problem with the Obama Administration was that it tried to use the law to push a ‘progressive’ social agenda, trying to break down religious beliefs and trying to force stupid things like ‘transgender’ rights. If they had just left well enough alone, Hillary Clinton might be waking up on her first full day as President this morning.
Actually Dana I totally disagree with one thing you wrote….. If the Trump Administration did away with that kind of stupidity and intrusiveness, there’d be less displeasure with the ACA.
My daughter has a brain tumor….she is seeking a second opinion….she has to go to her family doctor who then refers her to another doctor….who then refers her to a specialist…..it takes months to get these appointments……She was diagnosed with this tumor 4 months ago after a car accident……She finally got to see the 1st doctor last week….almost 4 months after requesting follow ups on this tumor……
WHY? its a no brainer…Insurance companies dont want to pay…….they have been forced into a corner by the ACA…..their profits are gone because of the ACA….Mandated coverage does not kick in until this year with real penalties(because the almighty Obama didnt want to be held responsible for the ACA disaster…he would be gone when it fell apart)….and the subsidies that the insurance companies were receiving from the government ran out……were in the doughnut hole right now…..and insurance companies dont want to pay for anything right now……
My sister in Law works for a major health Insurer as their head bookkeeper. She has told me as much. She explains how the ACA has practically destroyed her company by forcing them to cover people who get sick….then the minute they are healthy again they drop the coverage………People in automobile accidents pay a 1500.00 for an insurance policy that then has to pay out 200k-300k in hospital bills…only to see the person drop the coverage after 2-3 months……the insurance company collected 4500.00 and paid out 200k………..
The ACA no matter how you slice it is a disaster for insurance companies and without everyone involved in their own healthcare….health care will never be the same again in the USA.
Mr Thomas, I said less displeasure, not no displeasure. There is one fact out there being ignored: for all of the ACA horror stories, most people were getting their health insurance from non-ACA policies offered by their employers. The biggest problem has been premium increases due to the additional things employer plans had to cover, but those were nowhere close to what the ACA-covered people have seen.
We have three options:
I have already stated that I prefer the third option, even though the consequence of the third option may be that some people will die earlier due to the lack of health care. However, if the third option is taken off the table, and I believe that it has been, single-payer is the only option that makes sense.
Oh, I recognize that single-payer coverage will not be good coverage, because the government will have to resort to all of the tricks that the other single-payer countries use, stretching out treatments and the like, but the ACA private insurance is already doing that, using the tricks you mentioned above. (My insurance performs much better than what you described.)
What we would wind up with is a system something like Japan’s, where the single-payer system covered some very basic things, and people with resources would have additional private insurance so that they wouldn’t get crap coverage.
Full disclosure: I will turn 65 on April 22, 2018, at which point I will be eligible for Medicare.
And my daughter Dana has an employee insurance policy by One of the largest insurers in the world and they are giving her the run around…no one…not even employee insurance companies want to pay for anything right now….because those SAME insurance companies made the mistake of wanting into the pool along with insuring companies….this is the problem……
It’s pretty simple. IF we insist that all Americans should have access to affordable healthcare regardless of pre-existing conditions what’s to stop someone from not buying health insurance until they get sick? Or as, Laim says, dropping insurance the moment they are well? Any reasonable person acting in their own self-interest would behave just that way.
So either we drop the coverage of pre-existing condition requirement or we require everyone to participate.
Or let people live, or die with their own decisions. I know it’s had for you to understand but the cost of freedom includes the ability to be wrong and do stupid things. It does not mean I should pay for your errors or stupidity.
[…] SOURCE […]
So either we drop the coverage of pre-existing condition requirement or we require everyone to participate.
You know Jeffery every now and then you actually sound reasonable and normal.
The pre-existing pool should be a government program in which if you are sick….you are put into a government run medicare program and are then forced to buy supplemental insurance…
people are forced right now under ACA to buy insurance…. It would be no different this way…….my caveat to prevent people from purchasing insurance only when they are sick is simple…….
You grab this pool and then let your premiums lapse….you get one more chance…after two strikes….YOUR OUT….your on your own….
this is the way it is for medicare for seniors IF you choose not to take Medicare then you keep getting more and more higher premiums the longer you wait.. people who have not paid into the system have to pay between 400-600 per month just to have medicare……This is in addition to the really necessary supplemental which can run between 150-300 per month per person.
If the government either runs the preexisting pool or subsidizes preexisting conditions to the insurance companies then the cost of premiums would remain rational for the rest of Americans and businesses seeking health care.