A Republican senator said he has reached a tentative deal with a Democratic counterpart to provide a short-term stabilization fix to Obamacare health insurance markets. It was between Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. The deal was made five days after President Donald Trump's decision to kill billions of dollars worth of crucial Obamacare payments to insurers.
Trump's move, coupled with an executive order he signed Thursday, is widely expected to harm the Obamacare markets. It was already leading to higher premium prices for individual health plans next year. Alexander said the bipartisan deal would reinstate the cost-sharing reduction reimbursement payments to Obamacare plans for two years. However, it would have to be approved by congress.
"This agreement avoids chaos," Alexander said on the Senate floor. "I don't know a Republican or Democrat who benefits from chaos." The deal would also give states flexibility on what kinds of health plans could be sold in individual states, and would reportedly allow people over age 30 to buy less expensive and less comprehensive catastrophic health insurance plans. The deal also would allocate money for states to promote enrollment in health coverage. And it would allow for the creation of "interstate compacts" for the purchase of health coverage. Many have said that there is no guarantee that Alexander and Murray will be able to win approval for their agreement from either the rest of Congress, or from Trump. "It stabilizes the system," said Schumer. "There's a growing consensus that in the short term, we need stability in the markets." Schumer said the bill includes "anti-sabotage" provisions to counteract the "sabotaging" of Obamacare that Trump has engaged in. "This agreement would undo much of that sabotage. The deal in its current form is not close to being something that the Trump administration would accept. The administration would want much more than the flexibility being offered to individual states. Trump says "This is a short-term deal, because we think, ultimately, block grants going to the states is going to be the answer". He was referring to the block grant system that was contained in a failed Obamacare replacement bill last month, that would have given states money directly to set up their own health coverage systems for individuals. What are your thoughts on this situation? Do you think this plan has the potential to succeed with approval? Or do you think this plan will not be able to succeed?
I think that President Trump should have let the Obamacare stay until he has a working program instead of taking it away. Yes it may work but to cut a program off and to repeatedly attack it just isn't right to do. I think Trump should like test his program and see if it is stable enough to benefit the country and not just be in planning stage while taking Obamacare down. Also what does he expect the outcome to be if this fails who will we live if we have nothing because of Trumps idea we would live in chaos but is it worth the risk to take to put faith in his plan to help people pay for affordable taxes and for health care.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement. Honestly I don't know what he is thinking. It is obvious that cutting Obamacare will be detrimental. What Trump is doing is trying to erase everything from Obama's era, no matter how foolish the actions would be.
DeleteWhat is the president’s plan here? If he takes away the only plan that these people have without another stable plan to replace it these people would be left in the dark. He is treating Puerto Rico like it’s not apart of the US
ReplyDeleteI Fell that the president does not really have a plan after he so call take away Obamacare, I also feel that The president is doing these actions is to disrupt the things Obama did and you can see that in his actions
ReplyDeleteHey thanks for this amazing post. Would love to read more of such blogs. You can also have a look at Term Plan for more information.
ReplyDelete