President-elect Donald J. Trump said this weekend that he was nearly ready to unveil a plan to replace President Obama’s Affordable Care Act with “insurance for everybody.”That's beginning to smell a lot like the ACA, only with a different nameplate. How he can get to that without a form of single-payer is going to be interesting. The ACA was a rehash of past GOP proposals, from what they wanted in 1993 to RomneyCare, but because it came from a Democrat, they automatically hated it.*
Mr. Trump, in an interview Saturday evening with The Washington Post, said that health care offered under his plan would come “in a much simplified form — much less expensive and much better.”
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Mr. Trump said. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”
The options for what Trump wants are limited. Private insurance for all is the ACA. Single-payer is Medicare for all. There can be a mixture, maybe, with means-tested co-pays.
Trump also signaled that he is aligned with one of the things that Republicans and the Big Pharma lobby have despised: Directly negotiating on drug prices:
He told The Post that he would force drug manufacturers to negotiate better prices with Medicaid and Medicare, the government-run health programs.Interesting.
Trump is very good at running his mouth, so far. On Friday afternoon, he's going to have to start delivering on his promises.
If he can deliver on this, I will cheer him on. But I don't see how he can, as the GOP is welded to the idea that "gummint health insurance is tyranny". Trump will have to make the case that his plan is better, then he'll have to persuade enough Republicans to peel away from the Teabaggers and then get enough Democrats to sign on to pass his bills.
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* Obama Derangement Syndrome.
I've long believed that if everyone paid 2% (or 3% or 4, whatever) of their gross income for universal healthcare, we'd be better off. Yes, it sounds like Medicare for all, and it is. Even Medicare recipients pay every month from SSA (and wage earners pay a Medicare tax during their "earning" years. Removal of the "health insurance" industry would also add to the savings through less paperwork - Medicar only has about a 3% overhead.
ReplyDeleteT's a cagey one and if he can pull this off he'll get a 3rd term... meanwhile he's giving the EU fits, more exactly he's giving the bankers the vapors, much to the delight of all the prols who've been getting a sharp end of austerity run up their rears and who're dying to stuff the money boys in a potato sack n roll 'em down the Alps...
ReplyDeleteReminds me I need to run to the store n get more butter n powdered cheddar for my popcorn. Now Barnum & Bailey shut down Mr. T's running the only circus we've got left.
No 3rd terms anymore.Last guy who was eligible declined to run.
ReplyDeleteIt's put up or shut up time soon. The Deep State is in a bit of a tizzy. It appears the Republicans think they can control him once he gets into office.
ReplyDeleteI kinda see cheap ass insurance that will refuse to cover the cost of a headache without six months of paperwork and legal arbitration.
ReplyDeleteI think he's a creep, but really so was LBJ, and he did a bunch of things I like. If he does some slimy rebranding of the ACA, or why not even improve it while he's at it, remember there's years worth of stonewalling on fixes that could be undone and make him look like the hero, I will cheer as loud as anyone else.
ReplyDeleteMy pessimism comes more from Ryan and McConnell than Trump.
I'll admit that I'll probably never like him, but I won't fail to give him his due if he does good things. Sometimes even perfectly horrible people do things that are good if you let them. If you don't, they almost never do.
-Doug in Oakland
Why does this scene from "The Incredibles" play in my head when I read that Republicans have a plan?
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/_R8GtrKtrZ4
Comrade M... I was being snarky re a 3rd for T, though if he's adroit enough to revamp the ACA into a form of universal care he might also have the chops to get a few other goodies rammed through.
ReplyDeleteJust as a thought experiment suppose he announced that as a matter of National Security the USA had to rehab our manufacturing sector so that 50% of domestic consumption had to be made within the US, creating 20 million permanent jobs....
Further suppose, as a matter of National Security, the nation's infrastructure had to be repaired, updated, and if necessary replaced, and continuous maintenance be mandatory so it never fell into disrepair again, creating another 20 million permanent jobs.
Standard economics says the multiplier effect would be a total employment boost of between 80 and 100 million jobs.
And by the way, any of youse need start-up or expansion funding to get in the game? Call Linda at the SBA.
The effect on the electorate would be galvanic. Every small-time contractor would go nuts. All the highway n heavy guys'll start dreaming of fat paydays, bigger boats, summer cabins, faster snowmobiles n mud trucks. All those voters in Kentucky n Wisconsin that've been suckin' dirt n workin' shit jobs are gonna be all over Ryan n McConnell. And the Repubs never gave a damn about deficits unless they were Democratic ones - so what the hell?
Then he turns his attention to the EU, and he asks, 'Hey, the EU is our biggest [or 2nd biggest] competitor. Fk 'em, we don't owe 'em squat - matter of fact, they owe us. And all that austerity bs is just the bankers bleeding the prols.'
I imagine T has been on the receiving end of bankers' scorn enough he's got lots of score settling to do.
Could be interestin' times ahead.