Whether They Like It Or Not, The GOP Must Repair Obamacare

By DAVID KENDALL It’s very possible that the pejorative “Obamacare” could become the even more pejorative “Trumpcare” in a very short period of time. That is because Trump’s and the GOP’s promise to repeal Obamacare — the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — has already hit a snag called reality. Reports are now circulating that the much-promised repeal of the health care law (60 plus House and Senate votes since 2010) won’t take effect until at least 2019, after the mid-term elections. The excuse is that it’ll take that long to figure out an alternative and get it into place. But congressional calendars and political expedience have nothing to do with the health care market. And without action early in 2017, the health insurance exchanges could collapse in 2018 or sooner — leaving millions without insurance, millions more without protections from pre-existing conditions, and possibly millions more cursing Trumpcare. The only constructive solution is to repair the ACA before, ironically, repealing it and then replacing it with a brand new, untested experiment in 2019. Here is why: the exchanges where 12 million people shop for individual coverage for their families are careening on the shoals as we speak. Years of gridlock have stymied critical fixes to exchanges. Many insurers have pulled out after losing millions of dollars. Others are threatening to bolt, leaving the exchanges’ insurance market teetering on the brink of collapse. And that was...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs