In this space nine months ago, I proposed 5 questions every presidential candidate should answer on health care. Well, the delivery date for Election 2016 arrives tomorrow, and the questions remain “Asked and Not Answered.” There never was much of an effort by the two leading nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, to respond directly, but one still might infer some rough parameters from their various omissions, evasions, and obfuscations. Given the lack of attention to health policy, let alone health policy details, by Trump, we will also assess the outline of House Republicans proposals for health reform embodied in the “A Better Way” documents released last June.
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ObamaCare’s political disciples are dismissive of the tales of woe that ObamaCare has left in its wake, pointing instead to statistics on the reduced rate of uninsured.
Whatever egalitarian ethos that the law’s architects anxiously claim that ObamaCare still achieves, it certainly doesn’t justify the pain that the scheme is causing middle class and families. There’s a very narrow band of Americans who qualify for the law’s special “cost sharing subsidies” who can find ObamaCare plans affordable. Many who fall outside this slim income range are being hammered.
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