Posted on 09/19/2017 4:20:39 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday that he’s pushing President Trump to allow people to buy health insurance across state lines.
“What I would do, and what I’ve been talking to President Trump about, is I think we should allow people to buy across state lines through health care associations, and actually I think the president is going to do this on his own within a week or two, and I think this could help millions and millions of people get affordable insurance,” Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican, said on Fox News.
“It’s not a federal program, and it doesn’t cost any money. This is what Republicans ought to get behind instead of a big government boondoggle,” the senator added.
Mr. Paul said the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, known as ERISA, could allow Mr. Trump to authorize groups of people to buy health insurance across state lines. He argues there is an interpretation Mr. Trump can use to justify allowing inter-state insurance sales, which he argued would dramatically lower the price of insurance and still protect those with pre-existing conditions.....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I have more faith in most of Senator Rand Paul’s policies than in most of the policies promoted by his village idiot Republican colleagues.
>>>Buying medical insurance should be as easy as buying car insurance.
But it is not the same thing. When you buy health insurance you are really buying access to a network of doctors and hospitals. What kind of a network will an insurance company in Nevada be able to develop for people living in Alabama?
Paul was on Hannity radio and was absolutely great. Under NO circumstances do we give a crap about moving obamacare to state administration. That has not been ion the past any issue whatsoever. This issue is forcing us to pay for premiums of other people who don’t pay. Forcing us to buy coverage we dont want and forcing taxes on taxpayers and companies. What planet is Graham on?
Also Pauil predicted that our great President will issue an executive order on cross state line sales AND on Health Associations as insurers.!! That is huge. Please dont fall for this obamacare 2.0 shenanigan . It is a lie that it is a “repeal” it is, in fact. a ratification of obamacare and will be defeated iof we start waking up with our law makers and let them have an ear full. They promised repeal. This is no repeal!!
And let them sell low-premium/high-deductible policies again instead of the high-premium/high-deductible policies of Obamacare.
Trump mentioned this during his campaign — often, IIRC. It should happen; it’s a no-brainer.
Who is this guy??? Trump was talking about that very process forever...
This is controlled by the individual states. Not the feds.
“Great! Let the free market decide costs.”
To have a free market in healthcare we need:
1) Freedom to contract the services we wish and not government mandated services.
2) Complete price transparency prior to receiving services.
3) Enforcement of anti-trust laws to break up big pharma, big insurance, and the big hospital providers. Free markets benefit from many choices.
4) A national marketplace.
“What kind of a network will an insurance company in Nevada be able to develop for people living in Alabama?”
We need a national marketplace because Americans are a mobile people. Businessmen transact business across state borders and need to be able to have health insurance that provides access in many states. Likewise vacationers need access to doctors and hospitals when vacationing out of state.
Currently buying health insurance is not buying access to a network of doctors and hospitals. It is buying limitation to a set group of doctors and hospitals to obtain coverage.
Medicare and Tricare work across all 50 states by providing access to ANY doctor or hospital that accepts their coverage - you are not limited.
Push? Trump campaigned on that.
But there is only one provider a doctor has to negotiate with in those cases, the US government. It would be much more complicated for doctors to negotiate and set up billing systems with perhaps dozens or even hundredz of insurance companies.
Yes and he did it early. Trump in the month before or about a week after he announced his presidential candidacy, he had a 2 hour interview with the Chicago Tribune where he went into detail about it.
All doctors and hospitals bill by code, insurance pays by code. Most insurances pay prevailing rates by area. A standardized insurance billing form would work and doctors could negotiate charges at prevailing rates or agree to write off charges over prevailing rates.
Rates are lower for instance in Alabama than New York. Also, doctors could as they do now, not accept insurance coverage from companies who do not pay well.
If I were buying insurance in Nevada and doctors offices said we don’t accept Homehealth, I wouldn’t buy Homehealth insurance. By the way, Medicare is terrible about paying.
Disclaimer - in an earlier life I handled billing and insurance for a doctor. Getting any insurance to pay is a mind game for sure.
Rand seems to forget that Trump was pushing that a loooong time before he was elected. Needs to talk to his brethren in the Congress instead of point at Trump....
>>>Rand seems to forget that Trump was pushing that a loooong time before he was elected. Needs to talk to his brethren in the Congress instead of point at Trump
The President also said he had an Obamacare replacement plan that would expand coverage and lower costs. That it would be easy. But instead of offering this plan, he chose to lead from behind and left it to Congress to develop a plan. Given how that worked out, perhaps Rand Paul is right to reach out to the President to take the lead on this issue.
Excellent!
YES!!!!!!
Pro-market anti-government reform. A dagger aimed at ObamaCare.
The provisions of ERISA that allow this are found under the Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement regulations. Essentially, an affiliated group will be considered a single employer under ERISA section 3(40) granting them authority to provide health coverage under a qualified benefit plan based upon a single purchaser of coverage in every state members are represented.
There is a chapter on this in the book “ERISA Facts” by Bitzer and Ferrigno. If it is that important to you, you can get it on Amazon.
great idea!
Go Rand!
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