Congressional Republicans who repeatedly pledged to repeal and replace Obamacare instead are racing today to rescue the law with truckloads of federal cash.
Their plan: a multi-billion-dollar bailout of health insurers that sell Obamacare policies. In return, the insurers promise to reduce premiums just in time for November’s elections.
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Insurance premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans are likely to jump by 35 to 94 percent around the country within the next three years, according to a new report concluding that recent federal decisions will have a profound effect on prices.
The nationwide analysis, issued Thursday by California’s insurance marketplace, finds wide variations state to state, with a broad swath of the South and parts of the Midwest in danger of what the report calls “catastrophic” average rate increases by 2021.
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The Trump administration is preparing to offer Americans an affordable alternative to the high-cost coverage on Obamacare’s exchanges by overturning one of the previous administration’s most burdensome regulations.
On February 20, the Department of Health and Human Services released a proposed rule based on President Trump’s October 12, 2017, Executive Order that would allow insurers to sell “short-term” health plans that provide coverage for up to 364 days. The proposed rule is open for comment for 60 days. The measure would nullify an Obama administration directive issued in October 2016 that banned short-term plans lasting longer than three months.
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83% agree if private insurance companies lose money selling health insurance under the Obamacare program, taxpayers should not have to bail them out to cover their losses.
67% agree subsidies to insurance companies are not only a bailout for the companies but also hide the fact that Obamacare is failing.
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Key Takeaways
- It appears that Congress, backed by powerful special interests in the health care industry, is getting ready to bail out, once again, Obamacare’s a failing program.
- The bottom line: Taxpayers still end up paying more over the next several years for a failing health insurance scheme.
- We are witnessing the evolution of a classic government failure, and Congress is getting ready to reward that failure with another round of corporate bailouts.
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Late last year, President Trump issued Executive Order 13813, “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States.” The goal was to help more Americans access additional affordable health care options. The executive order prioritizes three areas for improvement: association health plans (AHPs), short-term insurance, and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs).
Enhancing additional affordable options are important given emerging news stories about non-subsidized families and individuals facing crushing insurance premiums and out of pocket costs and increases under the ACA.
The only consistent characteristic of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is its ability to generate litigation. The gift that keeps on giving for Obamacare opponents seems to defy common law doctrines curbing the practices of champerty and maintenance (frivolous lawsuits).
Last month 20 state attorneys general and two governors launched the latest lawsuit in federal district court in Texas, arguing that the upcoming repeal of tax penalties for the ACA’s individual mandate, as of January 2019, means that the entire law has become unconstitutional (or at least a number of its related insurance regulation provisions).
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