Hillary said on Tuesday: “We got to fix what’s broken and keep what works, . . . We’re going to tackle it and we’re going to fix it.” Secretary Clinton is exactly correct — if by “fix” she means enacting a proposal that could line the pockets of businesses to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars while simultaneously jacking up premiums and deductibles for millions of Americans. Hillary Clinton’s plan for a new federal tax credit to subsidize out-of-pocket costs for all Americans will encourage businesses to make their health benefits skimpier — raising premiums, co-payments, and deductibles — because they know that the new tax credit will pick up the difference for the hardest-hit families.
. . .
Mr. Trump might consider that his silence is doing damage to more than simply himself. Across the country, Republican candidates are facing voters angry about health care. It would help immensely if they could argue that repealing ObamaCare would be the pressing priority of a Trump administration. After years of having President Obama halt every GOP attempt to patch the law’s holes, this is an extraordinary moment in which the party can tantalize voters with the hope that the nightmare might end.
But to do that, Mr. Trump has to capitalize on one of the greatest political gifts any presidential candidate has ever been given.
. . .
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s updated health care proposals narrow what the Republican presidential nominee had previously proposed regarding health care, but his campaign still has not offered details about how such reforms would work.
Trump’s health care proposals outlined online, which were recently updated with little fanfare and still linkto his pervious proposals, say he would replace the Affordable Care Act with health savings accounts if elected to the presidency. He’s previously said people should be allowed to use health savings accounts that are tax-free and can accumulate, and that could be passed on to heirs when they die, saying the “flexibility and security provided by HSAs will be of great benefit to all who participate.”
. . .
Republicans have been vowing for six years now to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They have voted to do so dozens of times, despite knowing any measures would be vetoed by President Barack Obama. But if elected, a President Donald Trump wouldn’t have to wait for lawmakers to once again pass repeal legislation to stop the health law from functioning. Indeed, he could do much of it with a stroke of a pen.
Trump “absolutely, through executive action, could have tremendous interference to the point of literally stopping a train on its tracks,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of law and health policy at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
. . .
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sparred over Obamacare during the second presidential debate on Sunday, outlining how they would reform the health insurance system.
“Obamacare is a disaster,” Trump said. “You know it, we all know it.”
The candidates responded to a question on how they would bring down the costs of healthcare which surged after the Affordable Care Act was passed.
Americans are paying more out of pocket for their medical care than ever before, partially because of the rise of high-deductible plans . Also, the percentage of Americans’ income spent on healthcare is increasing.
. . .
When Bill Clinton emerges as an ObamaCare critic and even President Obama admits in a recent interview that his entitlement has “got real problems,” the discipline of the law’s apologists must be fading. The question now is whether Republicans can capitalize to improve U.S. health care from its ObamaCare bottom. The balance of political power will be crucial in 2017 because ObamaCare will have to be rewritten. Trump’s opportunity would be that ObamaCare legally empowers the Health and Human Services Secretary to loosen regulations if a President concludes that they “destabilize” health markets. As for Clinton, she’d need GOP help in Congress unless she wants to preside over a bigger mess.
As Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and most Senate Democrats coalesce around a government-run insurance agency as part of the solution to Obamacare cost woes, a large problem remains unaddressed: Insurers hate the public option.
Democrats, including the Clinton campaign, are showing little sympathy.
In recent months, several insurance plans have pulled out of Obamacare exchanges, citing losses. Many areas of the country will see double-digit premium increases in 2017 as insurers try to recoup their losses and bring rates in line with medical claims. The insurance industry has made it clear that participating in exchanges has, thus far, not been easy.
. . .
Former President Bill Clinton attacked President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation Monday, calling it a “crazy system” that “doesn’t make any sense” during a Michigan campaign event for Hillary.
“It doesn’t make any sense. The insurance model doesn’t work here,” Clinton said about the government-run marketplaces Obamacare set up. Clinton said that Obamacare “works fine” for people with “modest” incomes or who are eligible for government subsidies, or Medicare. But he added that, “the people that are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies.”
. . .
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton took a shot at President Obama’s landmark health care program in private remarks to donors even as she pledged to defend the law, according to audio of her remarks obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Parts of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, “need fixing,” Clinton told donors during a September 2015 fundraiser at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Washington, D.C.
. . .