The Dismantling of ObamaCare - Ongoing Updates.

[Yagents]

Webinar is now if you care

Major Considerations for Repealing and Replacing the ACA | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

At 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, January 31, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget will host a public forum to discuss the process and implications of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. The discussion will cover the implications of using the budget reconciliation process to repeal the ACA, and what an ACA replacement could mean for health insurance coverage and costs.

Speakers will include:

Drew Altman, Kaiser Family Foundation (introductory remarks)
Maya MacGuineas, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (introductory remarks)
Joseph Antos, American Enterprise Institute
Stephanie Carlton, McKinsey & Company; former adviser, Jeb Bush 2016 campaign
Elizabeth Fowler, Johnson & Johnson
Bill Hoagland, Bipartisan Policy Center
Chris Jennings, Jennings Policy Strategies
Peter Lee, Covered California
Harold Pollack, University of Chicago; Nonresident Fellow, Century Foundation
Avik Roy, Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity
Marc Goldwein, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (moderator)
Larry Levitt, Kaiser Family Foundation (moderator)

 

[AllenChicago]

It appears that Senators need a strong leader on Repeal/Replace/Repair. They're fracturing badly... President Trump went silent on this subject after meeting with Republicans at their "retreat" in PA last week.

"Two leading Republicans said this week that they would be open to repairing the Affordable Care Act instead of repealing and replacing it, which has been the GOP's stated plan for years.

Senators Orrin Hatch and Lamar Alexander said they will consider repairing Obamacare in hearings this week, the Washingon Post reported Friday. “I think of it as a collapsing bridge," Alexander said. "You send in a rescue team and you go to work to repair it so that nobody else is hurt by it and you start to build a new bridge, and only when that new bridge is complete, people can drive safely across it, do you close the old bridge. When it’s complete, we can close the old bridge, but in the meantime, we repair it.

No one is talking about repealing anything until there is a concrete practical alternative to offer Americans in its place.” On Thursday, Hatch chimed in at another panel. He said he “could stand either” repealing or repairing the law. “I’m saying I’m open to anything. Anything that will improve the system, I’m for,” he said.""

Full Story: Top GOP senators in Obamacare replacement role soften stance on total repeal | Fox News

 

[somarco]

They have no idea how it works, what is wrong (other than the premiums are too high) and no clue how to fix/replace it.

The most feared words in the English language, "I am from the government and I am here to help you.". - Ronald Wilson Reagan

 

[tonyisme]

What's wrong with this idea for starters... All the grandfathered individual plans would be allowed to have underwriting again and open up for fresh premium for new clients and that will help hold down the premiums for existing grandfathered plans.... where are the holes in this? Course they wouldn't have mandates but it would lower their risk pool premiums...

 

[kgmom219]

Mama's Fix:

2018: Announce that pre-ex will apply to all plans if you do not keep continuous MEC for 12 months, with less than a 63 day gap in coverage beginning 1/1/19. Healthy Pool Increases. Issue: Rates still go up 50% for 2018

2019: Enforce Pre-Ex. Rates go up another 50% (They have to start doing numbers in May for the next year. The carriers will not have enough claims experience to see that the enlarged pool in 2018 made a difference)

2020: Rates stabilize

2021: Rates begin to decrease.

Also, I want there to be strong tax advantages to businesses who STOP offering employer sponsored coverage, which will increase the Indy pool and help stabilize the rates. Employer sponsored coverage is ridiculous.

The problem with my solution(s) is that the timeline is too long, rates won't have decreased by the Midterms. So the politicians who only care about themselves aren't going to implement these.

 

[junkman]

My solution is everyone covered under employer plan or ACA. Everyone pays which means payroll tax. Benefits float inverse to income. High income has high OOP. Family HSA contribution larger of actual expenses or $10,000. No old person catch up, no dance about who owns account. No tax on HSA money. Mutual fund or exchange traded stock as investment options. Use last year's MAGI so we know in advance what it is. Carriers administer and plans match MEC. Option to buy supplement as available under state law.

We need everyone enrolled to eliminate pre-ex. We need someone to get people enrolled so it pays commission. Providers publish price list. Throw lobbyists out of funding for Congress’s elections. Stop paying the entire world's R&D. Force old drugs like insulin down. A friend pays $175/month for recycled drug whose patent should have expired long ago.

Life would be lovely if the world would just get out of my way. I'd stop the wars too - and fire the oil companies.

 

[Yagents]

Where a "red state" takes on a new meaning:

Look at this map to see if you might end up without Obamacare insurers selling near you

 

[AllenChicago]

Mama's Fix:

2018: Announce that pre-ex will apply to all plans if you do not keep continuous MEC for 12 months, with less than a 63 day gap in coverage beginning 1/1/19. Healthy Pool Increases. Issue: Rates still go up 50% for 2018

2019: Enforce Pre-Ex. Rates go up another 50% (They have to start doing numbers in May for the next year. The carriers will not have enough claims experience to see that the enlarged pool in 2018 made a difference)

2020: Rates stabilize

2021: Rates begin to decrease.

Also, I want there to be strong tax advantages to businesses who STOP offering employer sponsored coverage, which will increase the Indy pool and help stabilize the rates. Employer sponsored coverage is ridiculous.

The problem with my solution(s) is that the timeline is too long, rates won't have decreased by the Midterms. So the politicians who only care about themselves aren't going to implement these.

I don't understand why the Trump Administration is about to role out a new ACA-Obamacare rule to "stabilize the exchanges", unless he too has given up on REPEAL.

Excerpt from: Trump administration drafts rule aimed at stabilizing ACA exchanges | FierceHealthcare

"Amid increasing warnings that insurers could drop out of the individual marketplaces next year, the Trump administration has drafted a new rule that aims to stabilize the exchanges.

The text of the rule, which the Department of Health and Human Services sent to the Office of Management and Budget this week, has not yet been published. But its title, “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Market Stabilization,” suggests that it will contain provisions to shore up the exchanges, which were on shaky ground even before Republicans began the process of repealing the health law that created them."

 

[tonyisme]

I'm at a conference...solidarity health share has a booth..they getting a lot of interest....guess they will be getting some Maricopa County AZ business..says they have under 200k members

 

[somarco]

The health insurance market will stabilize when underwriting is allowed, and not before.

Car insurance does not have 100% market penetration.

Nor does lending (mortgage, auto, credit cards, etc)

Yet these markets are stable.

Why?

UNDERWRITING.

Health insurance carriers made money before Obamacrap. Since then most have lost money and tons of it.

Group health plans have close to 100% participation but they also have some degree of underwriting.

Only the IFP market is screwed by DC that prohibits underwriting because they consider it discriminatory.

We will never see a robust IFP market as long as DC requires carriers to issue policies without asking health questions.