Trump Won, Vows Day 1 Full Repeal. Lets Discuss.

[kgmom219]

Here is the legislation introduced by Price (and passed by both the Senate and House) repealing ACA: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3762

It eliminates subsidies two years after it was introduced and eliminates penalties (and thus the mandate) immediately plus lots of other stuff.

This should be required reading for any health insurance agent interested in what could happen next.

Just wondering...we are about to short HCSC a billion because Congress didn't fund the risk corridor and all the bills, including this one, eliminate the new taxes.

Exactly HOW is this going to fix the rates and increase competition? Just wondering........

 

[FLM2]

Just wondering...we are about to short HCSC a billion because Congress didn't fund the risk corridor and all the bills, including this one, eliminate the new taxes.

Exactly HOW is this going to fix the rates and increase competition? Just wondering........

They will, in all likelihood of course, figure something out, pay out the Risk corridor money and blame all of the extra cost on the outgoing administration...

 

[junkman]

Says that the latest action was 02/2016. It appears to be more of the same. Reduce taxes for the highest earners, ignore participation requirements understood by the insurance community and does nothing to move the ball forward.

Participation requirements are there for a reason. I'm reminded of the days went there was still a garment industry in TN. Rates went up, EE premium contribution went up, enrollment participation went down, agent had gotten lazy. We could go in, reduce benefits a very little, drop employee contribution and cover the entire block of people pf the same total premium. This did nothing to alleviate the underlying cost increase caused by price inflation and utilization.

We have a similar situation now. We have those that get free or low cost coverage insured along with the wealthy sick people. We are missing the larger middle income people with low claims.

I've decided to bail this year. $12,000 fits the budget. $20,000 does not.We spend more on the gym and our teeth than we do on medical and RX.

The only way I see to increase participation is to reduce individual premium and pay with a tax. Eliminating the tax penalty will not do it. Severely increasing the tax penalty is not politically acceptable. The poor only pay SS & Medicare taxes and very little ($0) income taxes. Perhaps a flat payroll tax similar to Medicare tax would get it but the inflation has to stop.

I note that large employers with low earning employees leave it to the rest of the country to provide healthcare and food to their employees. Walmart for instance signs them up for food stamps which are frequently spent at ......Walmart. It's what my economics professor called "spill over costs" and are avoided by the manufacturer of the product to which the costs should be charged.

 

[kgmom219]

They will, in all likelihood of course, figure something out, pay out the Risk corridor money and blame all of the extra cost on the outgoing administration...

They didn't in 2014. There is no "in all likelihood" on this one. (Thanks, Senator Rubio!) Congress playing games on the risk corridor is certainly a contributing factor in the significant rate hikes. The carriers got 12.3 cents on the dollar for 2014. And then we wonder why we are passing out 60% increases.

But this still doesn't answer the original question..."how is this going to lower premiums?"

 

[FLM2]

They didn't in 2014. There is no "in all likelihood" on this one. (Thanks, Senator Rubio!) Congress playing games on the risk corridor is certainly a contributing factor in the significant rate hikes. The carriers got 12.3 cents on the dollar for 2014. And then we wonder why we are passing out 60% increases.

But this still doesn't answer the original question..."how is this going to lower premiums?"

I'm far from a politician but in 2014 they were trying to repeal ACA, now they will be sunsetting it so could be different. They somehow need to get the insurance companies to play in this so will need to do something to satisfy them.

Until there is full price transparency regarding the cost of medical care and standardization on reimbursements the answer is, as you know, 'it won't'

 

[Ann H]

The appointment of Dr. Tom Price certainly tells us what direction HHS will go with proposed rules, executive orders, etc. He is VERY anti-obamacare, but as a physician he is very patient-and-physician rights oriented. If he were drafting a law, then I would be worried that he will be too one-sided. However, he will be out of Congress and in the Administration drafting executive orders and rules instead of the replacement laws. So, he won't be writing the Ocare replacement. That is a VERY big distinction.

He is also very involved in Medicare reform ideas.

As a physician whose biggest interest is the patient-physician relationship without govt intervention, he is unlikely to take an axe to ocare and gut it, leaving patients and physicians in a mess. Another indication that he wouldn't do that is the style with which he drafted bills in Congress. In every Congress since 2009, he drafted a repeal/replace bill, and it actually had detailed replacement ideas, rather than just an axe hacking at repealing the law. So, that indicates that this guy isn't going to just chop it into pieces and leave 10 million subsidized, 10 million Medicaid expansion and 9.5 million off-exchange customers in a crisis.

Here is a great article about the biggest repeal/replace efforts to date. Many of their ideas are the same, so they will probably come together around a core plan. Many of their ideas are stupid, from an insurance-background standpoint. But with Repub/Dem negotiations, strong lobbying, etc., this has a real possibility of forming into something very workable.

http://www.vox.com/2016/11/17/13626438/obamacare-replacement-plans-comparison

 

[Key2Success]

They will, in all likelihood of course, figure something out, pay out the Risk corridor money and blame all of the extra cost on the outgoing administration...

And who would you blame it on....Dr. Phil?

 

[FLM2]

It's far better to put forum trolls on Ignore than anything else.

 

[Key2Success]

Who did your parents blame for your complete lack of both intelligence and social skills, the milkman?

The milkman did what to your mom?

 

[junkman]

A friend of mine used to distinguish between good clean oats that could nourish and those that have previously been run through the horse. One is worth something, the other not.

Unfortunately, Congress seems bent on providing the latter while justifying untruths while using a straight face and throwing stones at the other party.

We do not have the intent to fix healthcare. It has become so expensive that it is unaffordable for most at its root. The only "market force" that could bring costs down comes into play only if everyone had to pay out of their pocket. We are past that point and are moving to pay for healthcare with tax dollars instead of foregone income in the form of premiums.

Anyone with multiple millions in assets benefits significantly from lower marginal tax rates hence the move to privatize Medicare and Social Security. Give a voucher that initially covers costs, don't increase the voucher thus hold taxes steady and eventually price the middle class out. Screw it. They don't need this stuff anyway.

Privatizing our prison system worked. It turned a prisoner into a $50,000 annual revenue source. We have 6x more people incarcerated in the land of the free than does China with its 4x greater population.

Let's defund Planned Parenthood while we're at it. After all, they kill babies and I don't want my money going to anything so immoral. It don't matter that PP does other stuff. While we're at it, let's defund our war machine. We spend twice as much as the rest of the world and people hate us for it. Oops, can't do that - private enterprise makes too much money selling weapons to the Gubmt and around the world. Besides, it ain't the people making the decision sending their kids off. Let's see Trump have his own enlist - nah, they're too busy collecting the family money off the Presidential decisions.

This stuff makes my eyes tired.