Reaction Begins to President Trump’s Tweets on Health Care

Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold the payments to insurers, which amount to about $7 billion this year, and referred to them as a “bailout”. If the president caused the payments to be stopped altogether, the insurers would still be required to offer the same lower deductibles and copays to low-income consumers.

Beyond presidential decision-making, there is still the question of what Congress should do.

The subsidies don’t appear to be the only part of Obamacare in danger. They were bound and determined to repeal and replace Obamacare – the 2010 Affordable Care Act that requires people to buy health insurance, forbids health insurance companies to turn away clients with pre-existing illnesses and provides public subsidies to help working families meet health-care expenses. Or will he ignore the facts and punish the American people? No longer driving up costs. If insurance plans know that they won’t get stuck with those bills, they tend to price their plans significantly lower. “All things are on the table to try to help patients”, Price said. Obamacare lacks an explicit appropriation for the cost-sharing reduction payments. Even when it seems as straightforward as ending “bailouts” to insurance companies.

“Now the states can keep the appeal alive, even if Trump wants to get rid of it”, he added.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump will decide this week whether or not to continue the cost-sharing subsidies.

For federal workers, the government covers about 70% of the costs, about the same paid by employers in the private sector, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. If that’s the extent of the damage, then the nuclear option will have turned out to be a bit less than atomic. That leaves them setting 2018 rates and their individual market strategy for 2018 amidst much uncertainty. But marginally widening the mandate’s exemptions might not have the same dramatic impact on costs. Regardless of what happens in the other chamber, payers are expecting ACA exchanges to continue at least through 2018.

As an executive branch agency, the Office of Personnel Management is now under Trump’s control, which is how he could end this program. And, other states that have released their rates have said that they had to make their rates higher because of the uncertainty created by Trump’s threats to cancel the payments – in Colorado it means rate increases almost 30% more for next year.

What’s more, Levitt thinks that estimate is probably low. But that’s a dicey political calculation.

Trump’s threat to stop billions of dollars in government payments to insurers and force the collapse of ObamaCare could put the government in a legal bind. They are raising premium rates for 2018 and they’re making decisions about whether or not to participate in the individual exchange markets across the nation.

Over the weekend, Trump lashed out at members of the GOP-controlled Congress for looking like “fools” and warned of retribution against insurance companies and lawmakers unless Congress passes overhaul legislation.

Of course, the federal employee unions – an arm of the Democratic Party – would completely flip out to keep from getting kicked out of their lush health care plans (which you pay for) and dumped into the barren shelves of Obamacare.

That’s a mechanism of the ACA created to compensate insurance companies for costs associated with the law’s requirement that low-income consumers be spared excessive out-of-pocket expenses for co-pays, deductibles and co-insurance. That group is incredibly vocal, and-being higher income-they tend to vote. Almost three-quarters of the people (6.8 million) who purchased 2017 health insurance via the federal exchanges had incomes meeting that threshold and thus could qualify for CSR.

This includes designing a system that will ensure there are enough facilities, doctors, nurses, specialists, transportation systems, and all the other elements of quality care in close proximity to all who need it – at any level of need and ability to pay.