Obama: Health care act is law, US can’t go backward

The number of new customers who have submitted an application and selected a health care plan through Healthcare.gov is down by nearly 200,000 from a year ago, according to the latest open enrollment figures released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a new poll showing that Americans haven’t exactly gotten more enthused with the idea of getting rid of Obamacare since Trump’s election.

Similarly, in October, just 11 percent of Republicans said they wanted the law scaled back but not eliminated. Overall, 30 percent said the new president and Congress should expand what the law does, and another 19 percent said it should be implemented as is. But Haslam said Friday in Polk County he expects the incoming Republican presidential administration to change the federal program and give states more flexibility to design their own own versions.

However, if Congress and the new administration are seeking tangible changes in health care that will last for the next four years and beyond, then the ACA must be replaced with policies that protect consumers and taxpayers without handcuffing them to insurers through narrow networks and dwindling competition.

During his campaign, president-elect Donald Trump said he would focus on repealing President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

“The ACA put in tons of protections for everyone, including younger folks who can stay on their parents’ insurance up to age 26”, O’Toole said. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, is a long-time advocate of plans to make Medicaid a block grant in which the federal government provides a fixed amount of money to each state, with the growth rate pegged at a level lower than medical cost inflation, while providing governors with increased flexibility to cover fewer people and to offer them fewer benefits. Almost a fifth changed their mind after hearing that 20 million people, who gained insurance through the expansion of Medicaid and by buying insurance on the exchanges set up by the law, would lose coverage.

What remains unclear is what would replace Obamacare.

Trump intends to dismantle the act entirely. He and his congressional allies have promised to develop a replacement, but they have not indicated what that might include. In October, 69 percent were calling for a repeal.

The poll found the law played a “limited role” in voters’ election decisions, which were more influenced by the direction of the country, Trump’s and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s personal characteristics and employment.

While the percentage of Americans that favor scaling back Obamacare has risen to 17% from 9% last month, the percentage backing a full repeal has dropped to 26% from 32%. “In the long term, the only way we get rate of increase down is by experimenting with alternative payment models”, he said.

The debate over Obamacare’s future comes as more people are signing up for coverage for 2017. That argument has resonated powerfully with conservative voters nationwide. Among Clinton supporters, 79 percent hold favorable views of the law. Georgia congressman Tom Price has been one of the leaders in the repeal-Obamacare movement, and he’s been designated by Trump as the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

According to John C. Goodman, a Forbes contributor, Obamacare’s original intent was to help uninsured Americans gain access to insurance.

That insurance guarantee is a key part of the health law.

The telephone poll was conducted from November 15-21 among a nationally representative random digit dial sample of 1,202 adults, including people reached by landlines and cellphones.