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Donald Trump is about to face a rude awakening over Obamacare (preexisting conditions)
The Washington Compost ^ | 11/12/2016 | Steven Pearlstein

Posted on 11/12/2016 4:19:09 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

After reiterating his promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, President-elect Donald Trump has indicated that he may keep two of the law’s most popular provisions. One is straightforward enough — children up to the age of 26 being allowed to stay on their parents’ plan. The other — preventing insurance companies from denying coverage because of preexisting conditions — offers a perfect illustration of why Trump and most of the other Republicans critics of Obamacare don’t understand the health insurance market.

Let’s say that in the beautiful new world of “repeal and replace,” insurers are required to sell you insurance despite the fact that your kid has a brain tumor. Insurance companies know what to do with that. Their actuaries can calculate that kids with brain tumors typically require (I’m making this number up) about $200,000 a year in medical care. So they’ll offer to sell you a policy at an annual premium of $240,000.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2016issues; aca; obamacare; repealandreplace; trump2016; trumptransition
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To: 17th Miss Regt

Yup.

Those who can’t afford coverage will stay in Medicaid.

Every one else but seniors (covered by Medicare) will be allowed to buy the kind of health insurance, when they want it.

Democrats want to create a crisis too big to solve.

Republicans want to return to a system that works for every one.

No one will be left to die on the streets.


21 posted on 11/12/2016 4:33:27 PM PST by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

That’s exactly the problem.

People get coverage only when they’re in trouble.

I mean people usually put their money elsewhere, which is completely understandable.

No one ever thinks they’ll get so ill, they’ll die.


22 posted on 11/12/2016 4:36:07 PM PST by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Insurance” is (or used to be) a voluntary form of socialism that spread the risk of severe loss across a large group of people, using actuarial calculations to determine the profitable rate for that large group or “pool.”

Certain behaviors or existing conditions kicked individuals into a “high risk pool” with a different set of actuarial calculations to determine the profitable rate.

That is still the case with auto insurance. Have a lot of speeding tickets or accidents? Got a really fast, expensive car? Insurance then costs more money. No one questions this.


23 posted on 11/12/2016 4:36:57 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

True but if your kid is in grad school or MBA program, they need the coverage.


24 posted on 11/12/2016 4:37:30 PM PST by southernindymom
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To: SubMareener

-—Donald Trump has already said he will handle this with High Risk Pools as in the past.-—

Exactly...to make it affordable, premiums can be subsidized.

That’s got to be cheaper than what we are subsiding now...


25 posted on 11/12/2016 4:38:58 PM PST by Popman
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
The best step towards good health would be to refuse immigration papers to people who look or have kids that look like THIS:

That's about 1/3-1/2 of how the "immigrant" kids in my area look.

Sorry, I don't believe they can help us. I don't believe they can contribute.

They can whomp up all the whz-bang paperwork and financing they like but THIS is the body type we are importing.

Can't touch your toes?

GET THE HELL BACK ON THE PLANE, JOSE, OR WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS.

26 posted on 11/12/2016 4:39:02 PM PST by gaijin
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To: xzins

What amases me is NO ONE talks about bringing medical costs down. All they can talk about is who is going to pay and how?

My wife recently had a kidney stone zapped by a laser. Out patient, was in the hospital 2 hours. $39,000 plus the doctor bill $8 K plus.

Until costs are contained we will all suffer.


27 posted on 11/12/2016 4:39:56 PM PST by oldasrocks (rump)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

I think it’s up to age 26 only if the “child” is still in school, basically a dependent. A “child” completing college, a Masters and initial work on a doctorate would be 26. If they go right from H.S. or undergrad to the workforce, they should no longer be on the parent’s plan.


28 posted on 11/12/2016 4:40:04 PM PST by EDINVA
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To: Pete
Republicans have had policy wonks working on this for five years.

Longer than that. Under the Bush administration, there were $1 million grants for any state to start up HRPs. They had it "fixed" in most states long before Obama summarily frigged it all up.

The RATs screwed it up here in the Northeast in 1993. (HillaryCare coat tails)

29 posted on 11/12/2016 4:41:02 PM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (Crooked Hillary is Goin' down!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

pre existing conditions are covered in most republican plans


30 posted on 11/12/2016 4:41:23 PM PST by Thibodeaux (Exile Barack, Exile the Wookie, Exile Malia, Exile Shasha)
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To: xzins
"They’ve had state pools long before obamacare. The compost is ignorant."

Willfully ignorant.

My own state had "open enrollment" periods and individuals with pre-existing conditions could enroll with a brief delay before coverage. It had been doing so for as long as I remember. Some pre-existing conditions might cost $200,000 to cover for a year and others might cost $200. It all evens out if the risk pool is large enough. Brain tumors that cost $200,000 to treat every year are fortunately rare. Mild osteoarthritis that costs $200 to treat is extremely common.

31 posted on 11/12/2016 4:42:18 PM PST by Sooth2222 ("Every nation has the government it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Pete

This single issue, is why we are even having this conversation.

What we had before, was a system which just did not cover these.

That is why we got Obamacare.

The GOP did NOTHING about this. That is why we got Obamacare. When we reverse Obamacare, we need coverage for this pool of people, or else we have simply recreated the mess we had before.

Trump says he will repeal (and replace) Obamacare.

AND REPLACE it.


32 posted on 11/12/2016 4:42:50 PM PST by cba123 ( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam.)
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To: goldstategop
People shouldn’t be required to have health insurance when they don’t need it.

If you know ahead of time when you'll need it then it isn't "insurance" is it?

33 posted on 11/12/2016 4:42:56 PM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

First of all, illegals should have to pay for health insurance just like everyone else, or go back home and get treated.


34 posted on 11/12/2016 4:44:02 PM PST by jetson
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To: ROCKLOBSTER
The free market “pre-ex” provision is called High Risk Pools. Let’s hope he puts them back in every state.

They weren't in every state before Obamacare. Are you saying that President Trump should force all states to create and fund them?

35 posted on 11/12/2016 4:44:06 PM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: SubMareener

Hi risk pool are a bad idea. Everybody with so much as a hangnail will be listed as having a pre-existing condition and placed in the pool, And when we had them, insurance offered to those people was very expensive.


36 posted on 11/12/2016 4:44:35 PM PST by MrChips (Ad sapientiam pertinet aeternarum rerum cognitio intellectualis - St. Augustine)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

Very bad idea. See above.


37 posted on 11/12/2016 4:45:21 PM PST by MrChips (Ad sapientiam pertinet aeternarum rerum cognitio intellectualis - St. Augustine)
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To: oldasrocks

That ztrikes me as more than a bit high, but I don’t know the technology involved.


38 posted on 11/12/2016 4:46:05 PM PST by xzins
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To: Chaguito
And if the companies can compete across state lines, the pools are bigger.

Companies already compete across state lines. Cigna, Aetna, Blue Cross, companies like that are in almost every state.

39 posted on 11/12/2016 4:46:21 PM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: 9YearLurker

High risk pools did not work in the past. Insurance companies can determine what is and is not high risk and force them into the pool where the insurance offered is very expensive.


40 posted on 11/12/2016 4:47:15 PM PST by MrChips (Ad sapientiam pertinet aeternarum rerum cognitio intellectualis - St. Augustine)
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