We Still Don’t Know How Much Trumpcare Will Cost
House Republicans this week unveiled their repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, killing a key mandate that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
The bill, called the American Health Care Act, has President Donald Trumps support but has been dubbed Obamacare lite by Republicans who are upset that it retains several of the Affordable Care Acts popular provisions.
However, theres no way to know how Trumpcare, as it will inevitably be called, will compare to Obamacare in terms of cost. Thats because the Congressional Budget Office hasnt scored the bill, and GOP aides involved in drafting the legislation told the Washington Post that two committees that oversee the bill are ready to advance it without a CBO score.
Whether that will be necessary is unclear. On Monday, Bloomberg reported that the CBO Director Keith Hall said the Office had begun analysis though its not clear when the analysis will be released. In the meantime, the bills backers are supporting it without looking at the price tag or knowing how many people will be covered.
On Twitter, Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, argued that lawmakers should not support a bill without knowing its cost: Need to see CBO score. Lawmakers should not support a bill without seeing the score.
Of Course Trump Has Scammed Millions From His Not
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One of the more ironic aspects of Donald Trumps improbable election win in 2016 was that many of his supporters declared they were voting for him because unlike career politicians, he actually told the truth. In reality, of course, he lied about everything all the time. Whether it was a big lie like the one about how Mexico was going to pay for his wall a weird lie like the one about having been named Michigans Man of the Year an insane lie like the one about windmills causing cancer a sad, pathetic lie like the one about his inauguration crowd being bigger than Barack Obamas or a truly WTF lie like the one about the Boy Scouts of America calling to tell him his crazy speech in front of thousands of children was the best one theyd ever heard, the man spent his entire time in office lying through his caps, to the tune of 30,573 lies in four years.
Obviously Trump hasnt stopped lying since he left Washington, with the biggest lie being that he won the 2020 election, but at the same time, his supporters continue not to care. So while it might tick off a normal person to learn that money theyd donated to a important cause had actually gone to funding personal expenses for a guy who never misses a chance to tell everyone how rich he is, were pretty sure the ex-presidents followers will not be bothered.
The Difference Between Obamacare The Senates Trumpcare The Houses Trumpcare Explained
The following table shows the main difference between ObamaCare, the Senates Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, and the Houses American HealthCare Act :
TIP: Note, not all the recent changes are reflected in the chart below.
UPDATE: Sine both the BCRA and the AHCA didnt pass, this has historical value, but doesnt reflect what actually happened. That said, youll notice some of these items were passed through other means.
OPINION ON UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: The biggest gripe people will have with TrumpCare is that it is not a universal healthcare system . Instead, TrumpCare results in more uninsured than we had before the Affordable Care Act. All TrumpCares good points aside, a plan that results in more uninsured and not less will be hard to spin. Trump recently said , Australias healthcare system is better than ours. To be clear, I think many would agree with that. Australia has universal healthcare, meaning it doesnt leave 15% of its citizens without coverage due to preexisting conditions and costs. Trump at one point promised health care for everybody. Here I must note that the Senate could essentially re-write the house bill to create a system like the Australian one . For more see: ObamaCare and Australias HealthCare Systems Compared.
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Here’s How Much Trump’s Covid
The images of President Donald Trump returning to the White House after three days at Walter Reed Medical Center is not one many of us are likely to forget. And then there was the statement that he delivered by video, and which was subsequently uploaded to , where he told us ” … I learned so much about coronavirus. One thing that’s for certain, don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines all developed recently, and you’re going to beat it. I went … I didn’t feel so good. And two days ago, I could have left two days ago. Two days ago, I felt great. Like, better than I have in a long time. I said just recently … better than 20 years ago. Don’t let it dominate. Don’t let it take over your lives. Don’t let that happen.”
So how much, in fact, did “the best medical equipment and the best medicines” one of which is still in its experimental phase actually cost in total?
Closer Look: Trump Biden Plans On Health Care
Sept. 29, 2020 — With COVID-19 making health and health care top-tier issues in votersâ minds, policy experts expect the issue to spark fireworks during tonightâs debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
One flashpoint likely to dominate the event: Trumpâs response to COVID-19.
While the disease is the only health care issue on the agenda for tonightâs debate, there are two more debates before the Nov. 3 election. And with more than a month to go, health care issues are sure to get plenty of attention by both sides.
Beyond the pandemic, the candidates are likely to try to convince Americans they are better able to address health policy issues related to the coronavirus, the Affordable Care Act, protections for people with pre-existing conditions, drug pricing, reproductive rights, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Sabrina Corlette, JD, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown Universityâs McCourt School of Public Policy, thinks the topic of health care will be a high priority for voters.
âWe saw from the 2018 midterm elections that health care was front of mind for many voters,â she says. âAnd when you add the pandemic into the mix, it only elevates it as one of those kitchen table issues that have a real salience for people.â
â prescription drug prices and surprise medical bills are pocketbook issues, and are likely to be back on the agenda for the next president and Congress,â Neuman says.
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How Much Will Trumpcare Insurance Cost People With Health Issues
One of the main goals of Obamacare was to make insurance affordable for people with health problems. Insurers are happy to insure healthy people. People in good health have few claims, so essentially they are just sending a check to the insurer every month. Its a good deal if you can get it.
But its a very different story if you have serious health issues. For these people, insurers actually have to cough up the money. In the good old days, before the Affordable Care Act , insurers would either refuse to insure people with serious health conditions altogether or add large supplements to their premiums.
The ACA prohibited insurers from discriminating against people based on their health condition. They could charge different premiums by age, but they couldnt turn anyone down because of their health, and they had to charge everyone the same rate. This means that a 60-year-old with three heart attacks would pay the same premium as a 60-year-old who is a serious marathon runner.
Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to get rid of the ACA and is currently pushing a case before the Supreme Court that would end it if he wins. While he says that he wants to preserve protections for people with pre-existing conditions, he has introduced no legislation that would have this effect or even outlined a plan for protecting people with health problems.
Past Updates On Trumpcare
The next section includes some past updates on TrumpCare so you can get a sense of what was promised or tried in the past and compare that to what is happening now. A lot of small changes have happened very quickly so forgive the notes.
UPDATE: Trump and Republicans in Congress had stated that they would seek to repeal ObamaCare within Trumps first hundred days in office. True to their word the process of repeal has begun. Trump has signed an executive order on ObamaCare. The American Health Care Act is on the table. After a meeting with President Obama, President-elect Trump suggested he would either amend ObamaCare or repeal and replace it, not just repeal it, and would keep key provisions like guaranteed coverage for preexisting conditions and allowing kids to stay on their plans until 26. More recently, Trump promised simultaneous repeal and replace,insurance for everybody, and he doubled down on his longstanding promise of negotiating with drug companies. Unfortunately, after a meeting with drug companies, Trump backed away from allowing negotiations.
TIP: The GOP forever altered the lexicon when they called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ObamaCare. With this in mind, Trumps healthcare plan has been unofficially dubbed TrumpCare. This is true even though no formal plan is on the table yet.
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Trumpcare/american Healthcare Act/better Care And Reconciliation Act Summary
The latest version of TrumpCare, with all the changes to the Better Care Reconciliation Act and provisions from the American HealthCare Act , AKA TrumpCare phase 1 contains provisions that:
First, the American HealthCare Act made the following changes (most of which the BCRA keeps items the BCRA changed are crossed out
- Allows states to charge more based on age or health status via state-based waivers ,
- Allows states the option of creating a taxpayer-funded high-risk pool.
The Senate Bill that is Replacing the House Bill does everything noted above with a few changes, they are:
- There is a 6 month waiting period if you want to reenter the market after not having coverage for more than 63 days ,
- Further reduces Medicaid spending,
- Tax credits are based on age and income from 0% 350% FPL .
- Cost Sharing Reduction subsidies are approved until 2019 on a per-month basis .
Then the latest July 13th update to the Better Care Reconciliation Act makes a few changes that include:
NOTES: Immediately following the July 13th version a few more changes were made. The bill now also includes the Ted Cruz Amendment which allows insurers to sell inexpensive plans to consumers that include basic coverage up to an annual cap . This amendment is likely to bring down average premiums considerably, but it does this by allowing insurers to sell low-benefit, low-cost, plans with annual limits. So there is a trade-off there.
The CBO estimates for uninsured under the BCRA.
Trump’s And Biden’s Plans On The Coronavirus Pandemic
Early in the pandemic, Trump supported and signed a series of big congressional relief packages, but talks over a new one have stalled. “His position has shifted back and forth about the importance of another COVID relief package,” says Allison Orris, counsel for Manatt Health, a legal and consulting firm.
If Biden were elected, she says, he “would really focus on injecting money” into these efforts, especially since many of the plans the Democrat outlines are expensive.
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Drug and health care costs
This is the area where the candidates are most closely aligned. Both want to end surprise billing and bring down prescription drug prices, and they even agree on some ideas about how to do so.
Trump has pushed hard on Congress to deal with surprise billing, and lawmakers got close in December but ultimately failed to agree on legislation. The president has used his executive authority to try to bring down drug prices another Trump term might mean some of these efforts will go into effect.
Trump has made some big moves on price transparency, issuing rules that would require hospitals and insurance companies to disclose negotiated prices to consumers, so they can shop around. This effort has “kind of flown under the radar, but could actually have quite far-reaching effects,” the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Levitt says.
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Other key health issues
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Secretary Of Health And Human Services Tom Price
- During an interview on March 12, 2017, NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Price if the AHCA “which leaves much of the Obamacare architecture in place, is an acknowledgement that the health care system cant be run by the free market alone.” Price replied, “No, not at all. And obviously this is a transition that we’re going through, but the important thing is to appreciate that the market as it is right now is failing. Obamacare, the ACA, has failed. Youve got premiums going up, you’ve got deductibles where people have an insurance card but they don’t have any coverage, got a third of the counties in this nation that only have one insurer offering coverage, five states with only one insurer offering coverage. That’s not a choice nor is it responsible to the individuals who are going to be selecting the coverage. So what we need to do is to fix this, to move in a direction that puts patients and families and doctors in charge of their health care, and not Washington, D.C.”
- In 2015, Price said, It needs to be fully repealed, because the first step out of the gate for Obamacare is a step in the wrong direction and that is for government control over every aspect of health care, so it’s hard to fix the system that they have put in place without ending that premise that government ought to be running and controlling health care.
After Years Of Promising His Own Health Care Plan Trump Settles For Rebranding Rather Than Repealing Obamacare
President Trump capped his fruitless four-year journey to abolish and replace the Affordable Care Act by signing an executive order Thursday that aims to enshrine the laws most popular feature while pivoting away from a broader effort to overhaul the nations health insurance system.
The order declares it is the policy of the United States for people with preexisting health conditions to be protected, avoiding the thorny details of how to ensure such protections without either leaving the ACA, or Obamacare, in place or crafting new comprehensive legislation.
Trump announced the move during a trip to North Carolina, outlining his vision for revamping parts of the nations health care. During the speech, which came shortly before a campaign swing to Florida, Trump barely veiled the political nature of his intent.
The historic action Im taking today includes the first-ever executive order to affirm it is the official policy of the United States government to protect patients with preexisting conditions, Trump said, despite the fact such protections are already enshrined in law. Were making that official. Were putting it down in a stamp, because our opponents, the Democrats, like to constantly talk about it.
Health care, long a top issue for voters, has taken on fresh urgency with less than five weeks to go before the November election.
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