Posted on 10/07/2016 6:19:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
The leading presidential candidates’ positions on health reform could not be farther apart. Donald Trump wants to repeal Obamacare it in its entirety. Hillary Clinton wants to expand it. If elected, she plans to prop up Obamacare with more taxpayer subsidies. The Obama Administration is already looking for ways to bail out insurers as they flee the federal and state marketplace. Clinton now wants to boost subsidies to low-income households as well.
Expanding Obamacare. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the government pays all premiums in excess of 2 percent to 9.5 percent of income, based on a sliding scale. The individual mandate forced many families to select cheaper plans with high-deductibles. This was an unforeseen turn of events that bothers the collectivists. Clinton wants to lower the premium cap so no one in the exchange pays more than 8.5 percent of income. She also wants to break the bank by giving a $2,500 (individual) /$5,000 (family) tax credit to cover out-of-pocket costs (and exchange plan premiums) that exceed 5 percent of income, for those ineligible for public programs. If you think your premiums are too high, she also wants the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to regulate premiums, even in the state exchanges. If there is a more direct way to turn the exchange into a costly, high-risk pool for poor, sick people, I’d be hard pressed to think of one.
Speaking of bad ideas; the Clinton campaign wants to bolster enrollment in the exchanges by opening them up to illegal immigrants. Unless she also plans to subsidize the plans, it’s unclear why a demographic that tends to shun health coverage would want high-priced exchange coverage unless they were already sick. I wonder if she understands what the term adverse selection means?
Although she does not explain it this way, Clinton would trash Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). She wants to require health plans to provide three “free” office visits (for illnesses, not prevention) before deductibles are met. Providing even nominal benefits below the statutory limit ($1,300 per individual, $2,600 family in 2016) will disqualify plans from being HSA-compliant. Trump would encourage people to use HSAs to pay out-of-pocket costs -- which is already allowed current law.
Clinton would forbid insurers from charging higher out-of-network copays when patients patronize an in-network hospital and get hit with a balance bill from an out-of-network provider. This is a disastrous attempt to solve a problem with other peoples’ money. Providers unaffiliated with your health plan could bill it whatever they want and force your insurer to pay it (which insurers will respond to by raising your premiums). In no time all, hospital-based physicians would drop out of networks and raise prices.
Both Clinton and Trump favor greater price transparency. Big deal! So does every politician, employer and consumer. Making a law forcing providers and insurers to reveal prices will merely expose list prices in the form of billing code gibberish. Both candidates also would get rid of the Cadillac Tax. That’s arguably one bad idea they both have in common.
Expand Medicaid. Under Clinton, states that have not expanded Medicaid could do so at any time and receive three years with 100 percent federal matching funds, just as the early adopters did. Clinton would not reform Medicaid or otherwise change the structure. The bloated, wasteful programs would remain bloated and wasteful. By contrast, Trump would repeal Medicaid expansion and convert Medicaid federal matching funds into a block grant. Trump would allow states to experiment, design their own Medicaid programs and make most of their own coverage decisions. This is something Clinton should consider.
Expand Medicare. As if the program isn’t going broke fast enough, Clinton wants to allow 55 to 64 year olds to buy into Medicare at bargain basement prices. She gives lip service to expanding the use of value-based purchasing. But whenever Medicare tries a new experiment likely to save money, Congress caves to lobbyists and blocks the experiment.
Clinton believes HHS should dictate the prices for drugs for the Medicare program -- especially specialty drugs and other high-cost drugs. (Donald Trump backed away from this bad idea months ago). If price controls are not enough, Clinton also would require drug makers to cough up rebates to the Medicare program similar to what Medicaid receives.
Drug Proposal is a Bitter Pill. Clinton wants to allow Americans to import drugs from abroad for personal use, but only from certain countries. This proposal is similar to one advocated by Donald Trump early in his campaign. Although illegal, personal importation already occurs on a small scale. Presumably Clinton would expand the current policy of Customs looking the other way when seniors order unlicensed, generic blood pressure meds (drop-shipped from India) from fake Canadian pharmacies located on webservers in Belize the or Seychelles Islands.
Clinton would “Cap the Copay” on prescription drugs at $250 per month. Only about 1-2 percent of drugs would be affected. Without cost-sharing to discourage high-cost drugs, over time this percentage could likely grow as drug makers raise their prices. Clinton also opposes “pay-for-delay” agreements by drug companies fending off generic competition. She also proposes a cash-grab by eliminating tax deductions for direct-to-consumer advertising. It is arguably little more than campaign rhetoric, but Clinton would make drug makers justify their price increases. She also favors reducing the exclusivity period for biologics from 12 years to seven. Coupled with her price controls, this would ensure there will be far fewer new biologics.
The presidential candidates’ health proposals are a hodgepodge of diverse ideas. As you would expect Trump relies on the free market, but provides few details. Clinton has a veritable plethora of bad ideas composed of government interventions, campaign rhetoric and wishful thinking.
October 4, 2016
Bill Clinton has blasted President Obama’s signature piece of legislation — ObamaCare — as “the craziest thing in the world.”
“You’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care, and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half and it’s the craziest thing in the world,” the former president railed at a rally in Michigan on Monday.
Clinton also said the system is hurting moderately successful small businesses — ones that aren’t doing poorly enough to be subsidized and fall just above the line.
“On the other hand, the current system works fine if you’re eligible for Medicaid, if you’re a lower-income working person, if you’re already on Medicare or if you get enough subsidies on a modest income that you can afford your health care,” Clinton said.
“But the people getting killed in this deal are the small-business people and individuals who make just a little bit too much to get any of these subsidies,” he added. ...”
http://nypost.com/2016/10/04/bill-clinton-slams-obamacare-as-craziest-thing-in-the-world/
As long as the Clintoon Family Foundation agrees to pay for all of it, I don’t have a problem with it. American working families have had enough.
Because government only screwed it up half way
They can only REALLY screw it up if they take total control.
Which is what they mean by ‘single payer’
You got it, and that means the tax payer will be stuck with the bill.
Sounds like the Bologna Slice road to Single Payer.
Its a scheme only a mother could love, and she is its real mother!
That vile woman would take a very bad system and make it worse.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are the penicillin-resistant syphilis of our political system.
OH HELL NO !
Because she won’t have to eat any of it.
California Becomes First State To Request “Waiver” To Offer Obamacare To Illegal Immigrants
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-06/california-wants-obamacare-illegal-immigrants
BlueCross eliminates Obamacare coverage in Tennessee’s biggest markets
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2016/sep/26/bluecross-slashes-statewide-coverage-obamacare-half/388673/
Rising Cost of Medicaid Expansion Is Unnerving Some States
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/rising-cost-medicaid-expansion-unnerving-states-42585163
The doctor isn’t in: Medi-Cal patients struggle to find primary care
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article106271347.html
Obamacare’s Ongoing Meltdown
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2016/10/06/chuck-todd-bill-clintons-obamacare-attack-is-a-real-problem-for-democrats-n2228875?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=
Effects on your doctor
http://nypost.com/2013/10/18/doctors-worried-sick-over-obamacare/
So did his evil spawn.
This is a major winning issue for Trump if he just starts hammering away at Clinton for her continued support of Obamacare. Yet he has been relatively silent on the issue.
Come on, Donald! This is a hanging curveball with the wind blowing out. Knock it out of the park.
I’d like Trump to ask Hillary why she’s in favor of Obamacare when every Democrat who voted for it lost or retired.
The American people don’t want it. The debate Sunday night is an opportunity for him to hang the albatross of Obamacare around Hillary’s neck.
He can point out her husband just trashed Obamacare as “a crazy plan”. Does she agree with him or not? It goes to the heart of the Obama legacy.
The problem is Madam Hillary Benghazi doesn't have to use 0bamascare - that's for the peasants, so she doesn't get any "Bitter Taste".
obamacare was designed to establish a federal ONE PAYER SYSTEM and CRUSHTHE MIDDLE CLASS WITH PREMIUM INCREASES..
M I S S I O N
A C C O M P L I S H E D
thank you Roberts ... another sell out scumbag like Comey
I think Trump IS going to do something like that Sunday.
Which explains why Bill, Chelsea, et. al. have been in full
Obamacare backpedal mode.
Senator Kelly Ayotte (N.H.)
Orrin Hatch (Utah)
Lindsey Graham (S.C.)
Susan Collins (Maine)
Jeff Flake (Ariz.)
Mark Kirk (Ill.)
Rob Portman (Ohio)
Thad Cochran (Miss.)
Ron Johnson (Wis.) Mitch McConnell (Ky.)
Despite its Bitter Taste, Clinton Wants a Second Helping of Obamacare
This list bears reposting.
Some may be in jail, now.
Some may have retired themselves and mercifully never be heard from again.
Some transferred from a criminal bureaucracy to a less jail-exposed existing agency.
Some may be hanging around in hopes of being rehired by the bureaucracy, no matter who wins the presidency.
They all must be put on notice that the majority of American citizens do not want them anywhere near Washington DC, ever again, in any capacity.
What do we need to do to make that happen?
What is worse, by far, is that all the HUNDREDS of welfare programs hidden now in Social Security, and certain to bankrupt the system, if not the entire U.S. budget, to facilitate "Single Payer," will be impossible to stop.
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