Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 36 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 5/26/17

Why Trumpcare is Giving Senate Republicans...

By       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   No comments
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Robert Reich
Become a Fan
  (130 fans)

Reprinted from robertreich.org

Healthcare.gov website
Healthcare.gov website
(Image by healthcare.gov)
  Details   DMCA

Very soon Senate Republicans will have to decide what to do about Trumpcare. Their choice is severely limited.

The Congressional Budget Office has made it crystal clear that the House version of Trumpcare will cause 23 million Americans to lose their health coverage.

Which means that unless Senate Republicans repudiate their own Congressional Budget Office (whose director they appointed), they'll have to either vote to take away healthcare for 23 million people, or come up with their own plan.

But if they try to come up with their own plan, they'll soon discover there's no way to insure those 23 million without (1) mandating that healthy people buy insurance, so that sick people with pre-existing conditions can afford it; and (2) keeping the existing taxes on rich people so that poor people can afford to buy health insurance.

In other words, they'll be back to the Affordable Care Act.

Some Senate Republicans will no doubt claim that the Affordable Care Act can't be sustained in its present form because private insurers are beginning to bail out of it.

That's an awkward argument for Republicans to make because Republicans themselves have been responsible for this problem.

In 2010 Congress established "risk corridors" to protect insurers against uncertainties in setting the level of insurance premiums when they didn't know who would sign up. Since then, Republicans have reduced or eliminated this backup. And the Trump Administration has done everything possible to generate even more uncertainty among insurers.

The obvious solution is to restore this backup and reduce uncertainty, in order to attract insurers back in.

This is surely better than repealing the Affordable Care Act and taking away health insurance coverage for 23 million people.

The only alternative is a single-payer plan -- Medicare for all -- that would provide universal coverage more cheaply than our present system, as embraced by most other advanced nations.

But Senate Republicans won't get near a single payer.

Which means, as a practical matter, they have no choice. They may wrap it up in different garb and call it by a different name, but in the end the logic is unavoidable: They'll have to strengthen the Affordable Care Act.

Rate It | View Ratings

Robert Reich Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, has a new film, "Inequality for All," to be released September 27. He blogs at www.robertreich.org.

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Trump Cornered

The Republican's Big Lies About Jobs (And Why Obama Must Repudiate Them)

Paul Ryan Still Doesn't Get It

What Mitt Romney Really Represents

What to Do About Disloyal Corporations

The Gas Wars

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend