President Trump is making the same mistakes as President Obama in an attempt to "pass something" when it comes to health insurance law. Repealing Obamacare is vital for the Trump presidency, but replacing it with something vaguely similar and perhaps worse than Obamacare is a mistake. A presidential one and done approach to health insurance law will not work.
Blast from the past--Candidate Obama sold himself with his lies about promised federal health insurance law change, President Obama told lies to get support for the Affordable Care Act, and then, crickets. Arguably, that was Obama's role, sell, sell, sell and sell he did.
But in the face of exposure of Obama Affordable Care Act lies, and the world of hurt the new law brought to many voter consumers, the one and done approach might have been OK for a salesman, but eroded without possibility of repair, Obama's reputation for most consumer voters, with the exception of the discredited diehard Obama fanboys and fangirls that defended not only the lies, but the chief liar to the American people, the President.
Instead of addressing the lies and the fallout of the law, Obama resorted to what he knew, salesmanship and lying more, an added insult to Americans smart enough to know the difference between a group of people getting insurance (those on Obamacare exchanges) and the "group insurance," Obama talked about. Obama exacerbated the problem each time he boasted of the reduced number of uninsured, when American consumers were smart enough to know that if you compel the purchase of a product, it increases the number of people with that product.
Obama was one and done and his legacy is laughable when it comes to health insurance reform, and worse, is one of the cruelest cons and impositions of law on a population looking for relief from the exploitive practices of the health industry complex only to find that their elected representatives made their own side deal at their expense and partnered with the insurance lobby to adopt that industry's proposal to fulfill a political promise (no denial for pre-existing conditions) by forcing the population to pay for a consumer financial product that had failed them so often in the past that many people opted out of its purchase (the individual mandate).
The compulsion created by Obamacare that would force people to purchase the consumer financial product of health insurance or pay a fine (tax), was to be used to not only satisfy insurers with a brand new market of buyers, those who might have opted out or chosen cheaper plans in prior years because of the exorbitant costs of their product with ever diminishing coverage, but would treat Americans to Obama's endless bragging that Obamacare reduced the number of uninsured, because, of course, those who could afford it were now compelled to purchase the health insurance product or else.
Then President Obama isn't stupid, but stupidly and endlessly recited the lies about Obamacare long after they'd been exposed. Even in Cuba, lecturing Castro on human rights, Obama was smacked down when Castro noted that at least in Cuba they had universal healthcare. As each weakness and unfairness and inadequacy of the health insurance law unfolded, Obama recited the same old lies, reflecting not his stupidity but his INDIFFERENCE to what happened once the abomination of the Affordable Care Act had been passed.
Obama was one and done, once passed, he rarely and inaccurately would appear and lecture our population on how great the law that we knew wasn't was. He'd misuse terms like group insurance, which Obamacare is not, but rather is insurance for a group, a far different concept. He'd misuse terms like healthcare when he meant health insurance. He'd wrongly discuss the concept of a single risk pool, an impossibility when Obamacare itself singled out at least two groups, those based on age and those based on tobacco usage for disparate treatment in the form of increased premiums.
Obamacare is a cautionary tale for consumers who once again, are listening to the pitch as we're told that Congress must "pass something." No. We must repeal and not necessarily replace. The theatrical Congress has proven its indifference to health insurance reform because they are not bound by it. That was a major fiasco for Obamacare, when its biggest Congressional cheerleaders, like Harry Reid, explained how federal workers managed to squirrel out of having to abide by the crap offerings for the rest of America by saying that our money paid to the government was being used to provide them with superior benefits as "employees" of that government. Idiotic. If it doesn't apply to federal workers, it's a no-go. But, like Obama, Trump is ignoring this bit of reality and it's a credibility detractor.
Forcing people to purchase a consumer financial product is a no-go. That compulsion under Obamacare was taken on by the federal government and its individual mandate and fines. Under the Republican government, the likes of Paul Ryan are trying to trick consumers into thinking there will be no individual mandate, but there is something called continuous coverage, which for consumers is the same--You don't buy the consumer financial product of health insurance, insurance companies can charge you a surcharge if you decide to buy in at a later time--Same result, forced purchase or enforced punishment. Trump is ignoring this bit of reality and it's a credibility detractor.
Continuous coverage penalties not only takes consumer choice out of the equation, but it removes any reason for insurance companies to improve and-or tailor their products to meet consumer needs, since they can sell the same crap for higher prices and charge a surcharge if you say, "No." Like, Obama underplaying the core of his deal with insurance companies, "You don't deny anyone insurance for pre-existing conditions and the federal government will expand your customer base by forcing people to buy your product," Trump's silence and acquiescence to continuous coverage is a credibility detractor.
Fake numbers. It trickled out over time--the number of NEWLY insured, excluding numbers from Medicaid expansion, was NEVER accurately calculated because the number of people who were forced to switch from their former insurance to exchange plans was never counted.
The amount of additional money spent on Obamacare from infrastructure to lasting impacts of new federal employees and their benefits, to payments to middle class people in the form of premium assistance and cost sharing, has NEVER been accurately calculated. The CBO claimed it was too hard to do and therefore they would not do it, and would instead only count how much money was saved on payments made on behalf of people using programs (referred to as health insurance costs only).
The notorious payouts to ineligible or non-existent enrollees, reported as 11 out of 12 false applicants getting approved for government payouts, never addressed. Fraud by providers and phony billing, etc. rampant and made worse under Obamacare with its 80-20 rule that rewarded insurers for not going after fraud so that they could preserve their 20 percent of money not used for claims to pay themselves.
The Republicans, with poster boy Paul Ryan, preserve these weaknesses in health insurance reform and instead refocus attention on the meaningless pro-life argument, meaningless because federal funds have never been used to pay for abortions and because defunding Planned Parenthood will not illegalize abortion, it will only mean that the estimated 40 percent of abortions performed for people with less money by Planned Parenthood will be more difficult for those women to obtain, a classic double standard of treatment of the rich (60 percent) who can afford private abortions and the less rich in this country.
Leaving it to Paul Ryan, with his oft-rejected (including his rejection by voters as VP) "plans," as he somehow keeps milking the American public in his public employment, retaining his benefits, retaining his pension, retaining his job even as he spouts idiotic banalities based on his understanding of the founding fathers, is a mistake for Trump, who quite honestly, should be smarter based on Paul Ryan's treatment of Trump himself.
Before Trump keeps following Obama's footsteps on the road to the contemptuous dishonest exploitation of the American people, he should stop worrying about "passing" a "replacement" and start doing his job as our representative to use his sales pitches to repeal the bad law and refrain from passing another bad law.
This is harder than selling some phony "good news" story about Republican health insurance proposals because it will alienate the public employees using our money to screw us. But Trump is not so beloved that he should be afraid. Trump's job is harder than Obama's because of Obama and his lies. American voters are newly educated on how Obama fudged the implication of Affordable, which applied to the affordability for insurance companies and government rather than consumer voters, and we're better able to understand the con.
Trump's job is harder than Obama's because he has less support than Obama did by a public whose dislike of him is stronger than their ability to acknowledge that they backed a con man in Obama. Trump's job is harder than Obama's because Democrat nostalgia for Obama increases as the "glory days" of the Democratic Party recede into the background and suddenly the slippery antics of Obama don't seem so bad when compared to Democratic disgraced actors like Donna Brazile, Hillary Clinton, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Loretta Lynch, Susan Rice.
President Trump, moderates voted for you based on your promise to drain the swamp and your promise to not have people dying in the street, the Republican plan for health insurance fails on both counts.
Public federal employee benefits, paid for by us, superior to ours while they nickel and dime how much care consumer voters should get is a disgrace, not a free market difference based on merit, but a government entitlement paid to public employees. Like Obama who conjured justifications to exploit the non-public employee middle class, most of us are onto this game.
Entitlements? It starts with public employees, like Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi and every other person lining their pockets with the public dime and having up to 72 percent of their premiums paid for by us for health plans with far superior benefits to ours, while telling that public what they don't deserve or can't be provided with paid in benefits like Medicare, where government actors behave like some cruel unmonitored foster parent begrudging meals to children because they're keeping money for themselves. This is not draining the swamp, it is the swamp.
Sure, as a new President and politician, following others' footsteps is sometimes advisable, but following Obama's footsteps on health insurance reform? Not smart.
