Judge deals blow to 'Trumpcare' plans

A federal judge has struck down a rule letting individuals and small businesses pool together to buy health insurance, threatening a program encouraged by the Trump administration that was created as an escape hatch from high Obamacare premiums.

The ruling, issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge John Bates, a President George W. Bush appointee, came after 11 states and the District of Columbia sued saying that the rules violated Obamacare and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA.

Bates agreed, concluding in his opinion that the rule, issued by the Department of Labor, was "clearly an end-run around" Obamacare. He also stated the Trump administration didn't have the authority under ERISA to change the rules.

It was not immediately clear whether the administration's up-and-running alternatives, know as "association health plans," would still be allowed to operate. Bates in his ruling asked the Department of Labor to state whether any part of the rule could still stand.

The ruling is the latest blow this week to President Trump's healthcare agenda. A judge struck down Medicaid work rules earlier this week, and many Republicans have said they do not wish to come up with a replacement plan after the administration in a surprise move asked an appeals court to fully invalidate Obamacare.

“Every other kind of insurance can be changed any time you want, why not health insurance?”

As a brand new insurer, yes, any time of the year should be O.K.

But as far as those already enrolled in a plan, most insurers only allow scheduled times for modifying or changing your coverage, and in employer run plans you can usually forget changing your coverage - it is what it is until the employer changes the plan for everyone.

By the way, it was always a myth, in most states, the employers group plans always had lower premium costs than what individuals could obtain. In some cases that was not true at all, and in other cases it was only true if you demanded some of the “golden” plans that some employers often had as the only basis of comparison. It also depended on the state, as to whether or not state laws had mandates that forced employers to have many benefits, which then boosted the “average” cost in that state. But when and if an individual could get just the plan coverage they wanted and needed, in some states that was no higher than a similar plan of an employer or union.

And we have seen with Obamacare what some of us always new, mandates have zero to with lowering the cost of health insurance or the actual cost of health care - they just “insure” the health care industrial complex is going to get THEIR revenue “insured”, no matter how much they increase the expense. Still the sheeple are well trained to blame the “insurance plans” as the culprit. That is just the bogeyman. The real culprit is the health care industrial complex. They have no market mechanism - you - holding their feet to the fire and taking your business elsewhere.

NOW with all the subsidies to the health care industry, they are in the process of the largest national consolidation in their history, further “insuring” in your area there really will be no real competition.

President Trump needs to put a stop to the outrageous judicial overreach that has crippled his administration. Our system of government was not designed to have the judicial branch as the be-all and end-all, superior to the other branches and the final say in all matters of law and national sovereignty.

Any judge who dares to try to overrule the executive branch on matters of immigration should be ignored and then impeached.
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You have it exactly right, and as I see it the only way Trump is going to do the right thing in regard to this unconstitutional travesty is for his hardcore base to put the fear of God in him. We’re in need of an organization through which his base can confront him with an ultimatum: Stop kowtowing to anti-Trump, anti-American judges or be prepared for serious disappointment come 2020. I say this even as I sit here wearing my red TRUMP 2020 baseball cap!

What we need first is a base that understands how our system is supposed to work and won’t stand for judicial tyranny. I am so weary of reading on FR that all we need is to have a few more conservative judges appointed, or one more conservative judge on the Supreme Court, as if everything will be just fine if we can only have judicial tyranny that works in our favor.

It shouldn’t matter if the Supreme court is “liberal” or “conservative” - they aren’t the legislative branch and have no business creating laws.

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