The mandate doesn't go away until 2019. That gives a year for the replace, which better happen or the Republican Party will have the tax cut intrinsically tied to healthcare during the 2018 mid-terms. President Trump says we will replace Obamacare with something better. They better get on with it. The idea of affording universal coverage by mandating people who don't want insurance to buy it or who can't or don't want to have babies buy maternity coverage is dead. Now we need to do the things which encourage competition and solves preexisting conditions.
That’s my question. If you are no longer required to buy Obamacare, doesn’t that already mean they have to compete on price for your dollar? Which theoretically should moderate the price even of the stupid Obamacare policy.
And if you aren’t required to buy it, doesn’t that open the door for the companies to offer other kinds of policies, without any new legislation? As I see it, if they don’t repeal Obamacare, the companies have to offer that specific policy. But what now prevents them from offering other policies, now that people don’t have to buy that one anymore?
That seems (to me) to eliminate the whole controversy. Don’t bother to repeal it, you simply move on and forget it. People who want it, can still get it, though at what price who knows. People who don’t want it, the insurers can compete for their business with other products.
The Senate does not have 60 votes that agree on a plan, and now 60 votes are necessary because when they had a narrow window, the legislation options were limited and there was no majority consensus. 2018 is an election year. It is a better idea to move to Infrastructure bills next and win more Senate seats without losing the House.