Pirate's Cove

Wait, I thought Trump wanted to take health insurance away from everybody? No? Shockingly, this appeared on CNN, including the graphic

Trump makes it easier for employers to pay workers for health coverage

The Trump administration is expanding employers’ ability to give workers cash to buy heath care coverage elsewhere, including on the Obamacare exchanges, senior officials announced Monday.

The proposed regulation is aimed at broadening the use of health reimbursement arrangements, which are not very well-known. Employers use them to provide workers with tax-free funds to pay for health care costs, mainly deductibles and co-pays.

Prior to Obamacare, employers used Health Reimbursement Arrangements to reimburse workers for a wider array of expenses, including premiums. The Obama administration, however, barred the use of Health Reimbursement Arrangements to buy policies on the individual market.

The move is aimed at increasing health insurance coverage among those who work at smaller firms, many of which don’t provide benefits. It would also allow employers who do offer benefits to give each worker up to $1,800 a year in an Health Reimbursement Arrangement to pay for certain health care expenses or buy dental or vision coverage.

Most Democrat proposals, rules, and laws, including Obamacare, were all aimed at massive regulation and control of people and the private sector. The barring of HRAs made it tough for small businesses and those who work for them. This proposed regulation makes things easier and better, especially with the unemployment rate so low and businesses needing to use incentives to attract workers.

Unlike most of the administration’s other health care steps, this regulation could funnel more people into the Obamacare exchanges. Some 7 million more people could be insured through the individual market by the end of a decade, officials said. In total, an additional 10 million people at 800,000 employers could use Health Reimbursement Arrangements to buy coverage, including 1 million newly insured Americans.

Yeah, there is that. But, at this point, there isn’t much you can do about the exchanges. The time to really kill Ocare was the 2012 election. Now, the most the Republicans can really do is totally revamp the system. And there is a way to do that while increasing choice. That’s for another post.