Posted on 12/02/2016 12:21:46 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Republicans have a problem. Their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare won’t work unless they repeal first because Democrats will not be motivated to work on a replacement. However, since Republicans don’t have a replacement bill ready, it could be some time before a replacement, especially one that requires Democratic support, is in place. The current plan to solve this problem is being called repeal and delay, i.e. repeal Obamacare but phase it out over several years so Congress can work on the replacement.
As Ed highlighted earlier today, repeal and delay has a big problem. Specifically, once the GOP repeals Obamacare, even if that includes a multi-year phase out, there is no reason for insurers to remain in the marketplace. Many of the top insurers have already abandoned the exchanges and most of those who haven’t are losing money. Once the marketplace is formally killed by repeal, most insurers would cut their losses, leaving no one to offer plans during the ‘delay’ phase of repeal and delay.
So how do you keep zombie-Obamacare going when everyone involved knows it is dead? You pay the insurers to stick around. Here’s insurance industry expert Bob Laszewski’s take from an interview at Vox:
What you do is subsidize the carriers. You reactivate some of the policies that were meant to stabilize the marketplace in the early years, the three R’s…
But these are the things that Republicans have hated. This is what they call an insurance company bailout. But keeping them around is the only way to maintain a viable market. The problem is when you have an insurance market and the new administration declares it DOA, it will go into death throes. It will be a death spiral. The Trump administration will have put it in a death spiral. The only way to fix that is if you subsidize the market. If you just subsidize the consumers, that doesn’t do any good if you don’t subsidize the carriers.
Sen. Marco Rubio has been praised on the right for making one of the three Rs, risk corridors, budget neutral. That move prevented the administration from handing billions over to Obamacare insurers who lost money on the program and led to some insurers dropping out and a number of co-op closures. Now, according to a story at the Hill, the GOP is thinking seriously about reviving the bailout, albeit without making it look like they are reviving the bailout:
One Republican lobbyist said that in discussions about a plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement, insurers are “painting a picture of the market that isn’t very pretty and Republican staffers are getting the picture.”
“They want to pump money back in to the insurers without appearing like they’re giving them a handout or bailing them out,” the lobbyist added…
[A second lobbyist] said Republicans are discussing: “What’s the impact on the 2018 plan year for that, and if it’s as bad as some people say, what are our options to mitigate the impact without looking like we’re bailing out the health insurance industry?”
Whatever the Trump administration comes up with may not be a direct revamp of the risk corridor or one of the other programs, but the bottom line is that some financial enticement will be necessary to make it worth the insurers while to stick with a zombie-health exchange once it has been repealed.
They should have been working on a replacement all along.
B U L L . S T U F F
I guess Trump has no part in this then...
Will it even end, this incessant climate of carping?
How do you privatize without insurance companies?
Now it’s a bad thing for us to move folks off a government plan?
Where do they dig up these trolls?
More stalling...
See it shows the rino goper uniparty leadership of the gop really has no inherent problem with obamacare. Said it all along. They only said they would,do,something to get votes. Then day one after, the backtracking and excuses begin all over again.
Which is why Trump was elected.
Just go cold turkey.
There’s no reason to keep Obamacare on life support.
And no bailout for the insurance industry that signed onto the crap in the first place.
That the gop-e doesn't have a repeal/replacement bill in place shows their intent to not repeal this to begin with.
There's no way to "fix" a health care system that is built on third-party payments for services that provide a personal benefit. It doesn't matter if the "third party" in question is an insurance company or a government agency.
How do we know this isn’t another case of fake news?
Wrong. Both the House GOP and Dr Tom Price, the New HHS head have bills ready to go with replacement plans. But never bother the perpetual whiners in the blogsphere with inconvenient facts. They not interested in facts, just click bait articles to drive traffic. What you have here is Lobbyists pushing for what THEY want while pretending to speak for the House GOP
Nono N.O.
Tge insurance companies said nothing at all. They were ready to cash in on obama care. Now they’re left floundering. Like Paul Ryan. They could not see tgis turning around
Seventy three percent (reported) of the country did and do NOT want this tge insurance industry said nothing
They could see, alike anyone with a double digit in that eventuallyobamacare would run out of other people’s money.
Like Paul Ryan they did not see Trump getting in. Anyone who says that is a bully who did not hear the majority of the electorate
No
If you repeal Ebolacare, why would the situation not revert to what it was SQA? Not ideal, but not catastrophic, and actually not even as bad as Ebola. Then from there you could work on real, FREEDOM-BASED reform. Any reform that’s actually a reform (freedom for individuals and public execution for Ebolacare legislators and authors) Dems wouldn’t vote for anyway.
They need to get rid of the subsidies too. Without the subsidies and mandate it all dies on the vine. Easy peasy.
If this is true it's disgraceful.
There’s no reason to keep Obamacare on life support.
And no bailout for the insurance industry that signed onto the crap in the first place.
Couldn't agree more, they made a deal with the devil, now let them suffer the consequences.
Let the market work and let the insurance companies, old or new, that can do it correctly, have the success.
CGato
Its not true. The GOP has had a bill around since 2010
They are plans from private insurance carriers. There is no government plan.
Okay, so you’re in favor of Obamacare.
I didn’t realize we had people here who did.
Thanks.
I don't believe it. I think what they have is a policy paper, or in other words, a list of goals that they'd want to achieve if they ever DO write a bill in a form that would spell out all the details.
Of course, I'd be happy to have you prove me wrong. I'd be interested in digging into the details of what is in the bill.
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