Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Dismantling Obamacare a tough fight

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The Republicans have finally introduced a bill to replace the un-Affordable Care Act.
It is far from perfect and what ultimately gets passed will undoubtedly be substantially modified.
Here is a brief summary of the provisions of the bill passed by the House:
It eliminates the tax penalty for not having health insurance.
People will no longer be required to buy their insurance through the marketplaces created by Obamacare.
It replaces the income based tax credits with age based tax credits.
It converts Medicaid from an entitlement program to a program that gives grants to the states to administer as the states see fit.
It allows states to apply for waivers that will allow states to opt out of much of the regulations and “consumer protections” that were included in Obamacare.
Both the Congressional Budget Office and The Kaiser Family Foundation have declared the plan will cost older Americans more than it will younger Americans. Since the current rates for Obamacare are exploding all over the country it is hard to judge exactly how anyone can afford to continue to pay for insurance coverage.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has produced a cost comparison chart on the impact of the plan for every county across the country. According to Kaiser a 40 year old making $30,000 per year ad living in Chelan, Douglas or Okanogan County could expect the net cost of health insurance will decrease by 86 percent.
Political promises and government estimates often come out differently. Obama promised every family could save $2,500 per year with his plan.
Unfortunately, this is more like Obamacare-lite. While it addresses some of the issues of Obamacare, it fails miserably in fixing any of the real problems of escalating medical costs. For example, it does nothing about the impact of frivolous lawsuits. Nor does it address the issue of medical savings accounts and other alternatives to providing for your health care.
So we are still on the path to socialized medicine. What we should know is that socialism doesn’t work. It has never worked; just look at the most recent example - Venezuela.
 

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