Wednesday, October 26, 2016

ObamaCare makes a GOP Senate imperative


obamacare-cartoon 
There are many reasons to hope for a GOP Senate beyond partisan wishes.    
First, the next president will have to make an immediate addition to the Supreme Court, although a friend told me that there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about having a certain number of Justices, i.e. 9.
Second, #45 will have to pick up the pieces of ObamaCare.
The latest from ObamaCare makes many of our dire predictions look lame. This is from the LA Times:
Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Obama’s healthcare law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration confirmed Monday. That will stoke another Obamacare controversy days before a presidential election.
Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25% across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Some states will see much bigger jumps, others less.
The Obama apologists will tell you that most of the people are getting subsidies. However, that is not true, as we see in the aforementioned article:
The vast majority of the more than 10 million customers who purchase through HealthCare.gov and its state-run counterparts do receive generous financial assistance. “Enrollment is concentrated among very low-income individuals who receive significant government subsidies to reduce premiums and cost-sharing,” said Caroline Pearson of the consulting firm Avalere Health
But an estimated 5 million to 7 million people are either not eligible for the income-based assistance or they buy individual policies outside of the health law’s markets, where the subsidies are not available. The administration is urging the latter group to check out HealthCare.gov. The spike in premiums generally does not affect the employer-provided plans that most workers and their families rely on.
Ironically, this is exactly what President Clinton referred to as crazy, i.e. the people who must pay can’t afford it and those with subsidized premiums can’t afford the deductible.
As we look forward, there is no way of fixing ObamaCare.  It will have to be dismantled and replaced by something that maintains the “pre-existing conditions” clause but brings more competition into the health care market.   
In a normal election, the GOP nominee would be pounding ObamaCare, national security and a lousy economy at every stop.  Unfortunately, Mr. Trump has not really taken advantage of the ObamaCare collapse.
It’s up to a GOP Senate and House to draft a replacement. This is going to be even more important if we have another President Clinton under pressure from the left to go “single pay”.
So make sure that you vote, or support, everyone of the GOP candidates fighting off a challenge, from New Hampshire to Arizona.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

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