DN editorial: Time for some real health-care reform

House Republicans’ plan to replace the Affordable Care Act would make significant changes to the US health insurance system.

The Republicans’ newly released health care plan is taking fire from Republican and Democratic legislators, and several health care industry groups, but that didn’t stop it from speeding through two major Republican-dominated House committees Thursday, boosted by a cheerful tweet from President Donald Trump. They estimate that a 64-year-old would pay $8,400 more per year than they do now. “We must act now to save Americans from the imploding Obamacare disaster”, he said, adding that 2017 is the year “it was meant to explode”. He was back on Capitol Hill for the second time this week, meeting with fellow Republicans to talk and pitch the health care bill. The Congressional Budget Office hasn’t even evaluated the bill yet to see how it will affect the federal deficit.

The CBO analysis is expected next week.

Policy-minded conservatives have serious criticisms of President Obama’s health care law.

The Republican health care plan would use 2016 Medicaid spending as a baseline for determining how much money each state would get.

“Is he also upset that auto insurance makes people who don’t get into wrecks help pay for people who do get into wrecks?” The ACA does not allow deductibility of compensation in excess of $500,000 a year.

After grueling all-night sessions, the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees both approved their portions of the bill along party-line votes.

AARP, the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, which supported the ACA, have all come out against the new proposal. It’s fairly well known that Republicans have grown more conservative over the years.

“We’ve said all along, ‘Work with the governors, ‘ that it should be a governor-led effort and for the Congress to rely on the governors”, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said Tuesday. Its benefits, such as the removal of most Affordable Care Act taxes, would be overwhelmed by the negative impact of government-encouraged health insurance provision. Since the law’s expansion, Medicaid has been able to help a significant part of these citizens, but with the new GOP bill, this help might be in danger. “These insurers could pull healthier consumers out of the insurance pools in their home states while leaving their sicker neighbors behind in higher-cost pools”.

Medicaid financing – or, shall we say, the move to go to a per-capita funding system – is also a worry of America’s Health Insurance Plans, which represents Anthem (NYSE: ANTM) and other insurance agencies.

We could structure premium payments similar to employer-provided plans. The bill would replace income-based subsidies Obama provided with tax credits based more on age, and insurers would charge higher premiums for customers who drop coverage for over two months.The extra billions Washington has sent states to expand the federal-state Medicaid program would phase out, and spending on the entire program would be capped at per-patient limits. It is used to pay insurance executives multi-million-dollar salaries, create dividends for stockholders and lobby your congressmen to prevent true health care reform. You also can’t say you want to maintain the Affordable Care Act’s coverage, because then you’re a big government RINO who’s soft on Obamacare.

He has unleashed a leadership team full of conservative former House members: Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price and budget director Mick Mulvaney. While Obamacare took local costs of healthcare into consideration, tax credits under the Republican plan are the same as in states like Alaska and NY.

“The American Health Care Act is a plan to drive down costs, encourage competition, and give every American access to quality, affordable health insurance”, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement.

“At the end of the day, the people at home are seeing that this is run in a top-down fashion – that you have a few people who tell everyone else this is what we are going to do and that’s it”, Rep. Justin Amash, R- MI told NBC News.