Republicans have made a great deal of progress toward broad agreement on a general policy approach over the past half-decade. The GOP has been preparing for the opportunity to enact conservative health care reform for years, and it now faces both a party electorate and a health care system that will not allow for endless…
DetailsRep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, faced a contentious Senate hearing Wednesday as Democrats questioned his ideas for the future of Americans’ health coverage and whether his personal investments in health-care companies presented conflicts during his years in Congress. Price began by laying out central…
DetailsPresident-elect Donald Trump says the program he plans to institute as a replacement for the Affordable Care Act will “get private insurance companies to take care of a lot of the people that can afford it.” “We’re going to have a plan that’s going to be great for people. And it’s going to be much…
DetailsPresident Obama recently warned that if Congress junks the Affordable Care Act, “133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions” will be in jeopardy. That’s a phony figure, for several reasons. The actual number is roughly 500,000. For starters, half of Americans get their insurance through an employer, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Another 34% are…
DetailsTwo Republican senators are working on legislation that would let states decide whether they want to keep Obamacare or move to a different system. Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Susan Collins of Maine both hinted on the Senate floor Tuesday about a bill that would preserve Obamacare, but only for states that choose to…
DetailsDonald Trump’s pledge to “repeal and replace Obamacare” was one of his biggest crowd pleasers. Moving forward on his broad replacement themes—expanding health savings accounts (HSAs) and state flexibility—could lead to some surprising and intriguing reforms. During the campaign, Trump supported the familiar Republican themes of tax-free HSAs and allowing families to deduct health insurance…
Details“As Republicans try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they should be reminded every day that 36,000 people will die yearly as a result.” — Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), in a tweet, Jan. 12, 2017 Sanders has tweeted as a definite fact an estimate that a) assumes Republicans will gut Obamacare without a replacement b)…
DetailsThis morning, the Congressional Budget Office released a report arguing that the partial repeal of Obamacare being contemplated by Republicans would wildly increase the number of people without health insurance, in ways that are difficult to understand. Here are four problems with the CBO’s analysis. 1. The CBO’s estimates assume no Obamacare replacement 2. The CBO massively…
DetailsA spokesman for Donald Trump sought Monday to elaborate on the president-elect’s plans to replace the Affordable Care Act, vowing that the new administration would lower health-care costs by infusing more competition into the marketplace, including by allowing insurers to sell health plans across state lines. Trump’s goal is “to get insurance for everybody through marketplace…
Details“What about the 20 million people who got coverage?” Republicans are naturally concerned. Liberals have weaponized this number to stop repeal of the ACA. But should 20 million people keep a bad law on the books? To answer this question, Congress must ask two different questions. First, is the number real? In March 2016, the…
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