Hhahhahahahahah I guess that shows you the level of involvement the Republicans have had in the past decade in coming up with any solutions to healthcare at all if NOBODY KNEW..... "Nobody Knew"... what an idiot... or he really does have such an insulting view of the intelligence of the American people. However... Republicans, like our buddy Marco Rubio, have paid attention in ways they can undermine our healthcare & the ACA. Just google Marco Rubio & Risk Corridors & you will get a wealth of information on how Rubio & other Republicans play politics better than they serve the American people. F&$# those guys. They had 6 years to write up a tangible Health Care plan where everyone gets a better deal, and they couldn't do it then, and they sure as hell can't do it now. Just sack up and own up to the fact that you are repealing Obamacare strictly so anyone that earns over 1 million bucks a year can get their F-ing tax break all the while the middle class gets screwed once again.
The Republicans don't want to touch or mess with ObamaCare. It is a political landmine that won't end well for the party in power. There is no easy or clear solution and getting political approval for anything drastic will be very, very difficult.
In b4 Trump says "Nobody knew the Middle East was so complicated." "Nobody knew The Wall would cost $22,000,000,000." "Nobody knew the regulations were actually about real stuff." "Nobody knew China did not invent the global warming thing." "Nobody knew I was really gonna do some of the crazy **** I said and I was not gonna do some of the other crazy **** I said."
Question.... at what point will Trump have to change his message from "I Inherited a mess" to "Look at how great I'm doing"? Will he be able to survive on that notion with his base for another 6 months? a Year? If they hold off on truly replacing ACA & rates spike again in Q4, will Trump be able to say "Its Obama's fault" or will his supporters not buy that BS & Say "where is the new health care plan you promised"? Just curious about his runway here.
Some of his supporters will buy what ever he is saying, even if he declare he is the new emperor of the united states. You do not have to look too far to see these type of people.
Trump isn't going to take any personal responsibility.... "The radical Muslims and Obama coddling them has caused this mess." "The Wall doesn't cost $22,000,000,000. That is just a Democrat talking point parroted by the media. Make no mistake, the Mexicans have been paying for it!" "Obama destroyed out economy and killed of businesses. Don't read the numbers the lying media publishes. It is all lies." "There is no global warming. Scientists made it up so that idiots would believe them. You are too smart for that. I snowed last week, there is no global warming." "The media, they lie and they twist everything I do. They are the enemy of the people. I am looking out for Americans."
Remember we were going to get health insurance plans that will be cheaper, covers more people and have more benefits, president Trump promised that.
I guess there is a bigger question here about the Trump base. Who are they really in this 38 to 43%. or even the 47% that won him the Election. Yeah I realize there is his hardcore base that will jump off a cliff for him, but I have to believe that there is a portion of his current supporter base, that will fold on him if they don't see results, and feel it in their pocket books. He's got between 38 - 43% of Americans right now. How many of those are going to stay loyal to him if- -ACA either doesn't get repealed & rates continue to hike or they repeal and the middle class finds out they got screwed -rust belt swing states don't see a dramatic increase in jobs & pay -Unemployment goes up -stock market falls (economists will tell you it will continue to rise for another few months to a year due to deregulation. However there is real risk in long term suffering due to anti-globalization & trade policies). -New Tax reform hits the pock books of the working class (probably a year or two away from full Tax reform). -Housing market bubble bursts Where ACA is interesting here is that it seems to be the quickest way for that Middle America Working Class Voter to really feel that Trump affected their pocket books by, in this case, not doing anything to make Healthcare more affordable. So while Trump SAYS "Politically we should be waiting to repeal & replace" I don't think that's accurate at all. I think politically they might need a win here (that they can spin of course) before the end of the year. Unfortunately I think that win will be for them to repeal and replace with a BS system like beforehand (or lackthereof) that they can spin and say "Hey we got X number of dollars back in YOUR pockets with Tax Cuts" (when really its just with millionaires), and run a PR campaign to pew nonsense about how in the long run its better for everyone. Unfortunately I think that's the play here because they know that they will have gobs of support from the wealthy that will help them in 2018 financing their campaigns for re-election. But are the wealthy (8% of Americans) included in that 49% of Trump supporters? Probably most of them. How much of that other 30 to 40% will realize that they got screwed in ACA repeal vs how many would be pissed if their rates fly through the roof again in October? How much of those are "Jump off a cliff Trump supporters vs those who are looking for results and might have voted for him out of spite of Hillary & just want to see results? We could be looking at 5 to 10% of "HIS BASE" that could swing away from his grasp by midterms even just with an ACA repeal screw up. If Trump really was all in on his support for those getting screwed by ACA, he would use his "Negotiation" skills with Insurance companies to keep ACA AND Bring rates down. That's the ulimate "Win-Win" for him right now politically... But we all know he could give two sh#$'s about that. He's and the Republicans are trying everything they can to have their cake (get tax cuts for rich) and eat it too (not lose supporters from his base to get re-elected). That's going to tough IMO & will be a bit part of his success in mid terms & beyond.
Our healthcare system in this country is so jacked up that I'm not even sure "for profit" insurance should exist. An actuarial fair premium can't work for health . And even if a mandate is enforced , the overall cost for consumers will continue to rise . The only way to do it might be for government to tax and do it at a loss and hold that over time our health as a society improves.
Even "non-profit" insurance is a problem. Many of our insurance companies are classified as non-profit as are many hospital systems. In both cases, the non-profit classification doesn't really change the behavior of these companies. As for your point about the government making up the difference to ensure the current community rating standard, that was actually in some of the earlier revisions of the ACA. The subsidies to insurance companies to help subsidize community rating was stripped out at some point. Frankly, that was a dumb solution to begin with. The 1993 Clinton proposal had the individual mandate as well but at least that proposal would have created the state association system that combined the individual and employee insurance markets to smooth out the risk of the insurance pool. Keeping the employer/individual market distinction still results in the individual market being older, sicker and ultimately more expensive to ensure.
So much for that ACA replacement plan. Starting over... GOP leader: Leaked ObamaCare replacement 'no longer' viable http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/321551-gop-leader-leaked-obamacare-replacement-no-longer-viable Price's plan ("highlights"): Require continuous coverage for preexisting conditions Provide funding for high-risk pools Make insurance better for the young and healthy Provide tax credits based on age Expand the use of health savings accounts (HSAs) Repeal Medicaid expansions Limit tax exclusions for employer-sponsored coverage https://www.healthmarkets.com/resources/health-insurance/tom-price-healthcare-proposal/ http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/17/news/economy/tom-price-trump-obamacare/
Ultimately, they likely pass a "repeal in 3 years and we'll figure out the replacement during that time" type bill, because the reality is that they have no actual "solution". Every solution they come up with, if they plan to keep the pre-existing conditions provision, is going to look a lot like Obamacare with a new name. Simpler solution would be to just go fix the known issues with Obamacare that they refuse to do because they've been trying to make it fail for political reasons.
Sadly, I don't think this will be the case. They are going to do stupid things - like implementing tax credits instead of subsidies. Which are basically work similarly except that it requires poor people to front a bunch of money they don't have, and will have a hugely negative impact on people's health. But it will sound better to say "tax credit" than "subsidy", and that's all that really matters for the GOP at this point.
It'll also be a lot easier to kill the credit in a simplify-the-tax-code effort later on instead of taking away people's entitlements. "I inherited a mess" strikes me as pretty funny. I think Obama had a pretty good claim since the economy completely blew up a couple of months before he took office. Looks to me like Trump is stepping into a good situation as far as presidential starts go.
Correct... what was the Dow Jones when Obama became president? Something around 7,900? And when he left? Something around 19,800?
It is hilarious, but the statement Trump made isn't there for me and you. Keep in mind, HIS BASE HATES OBAMA with every breath. If you religiously watched FoxNews or read Breitbart and nothing else (and didn't know much about the economy) you'd probably think it was a mess too. Obama could have toss gold in the streets every day of his presidency and the Right would have complained that he could have injured small children. I'm not really concerned about the 60% of Americans that don't support him now. He's not winning any of those people over anytime soon. The other 40% though, I'm just curious about his runway with those people. Will he be able to blame everyone else for 4 years with these people? Are they that deep in? I have to believe that at least 10% of those voters have to be vulnerable to losing faith if they don't see results.
