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Former Trump health offical: GOP tax bill will raise insurance prices
Tribune-Review (Suburban Pittsburgh) ^ | 2 May 2018 | Wes Venteicher

Posted on 05/02/2018 10:10:45 AM PDT by Vigilanteman

Updated 14 hours ago

President Trump's former top health official said Tuesday that health insurance costs would likely go up as a result of Trump-backed Republican legislation removing the federal requirement that everyone have health insurance.

Congressional Republicans eliminated the individual insurance mandate, which was part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, as part of a tax overhaul they passed in December.

Removing the mandate without passing other reforms could spur young, healthy people to pull out of the ACA's insurance market and stop paying premiums, driving up costs for those remaining in the “pool” of people with insurance, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told the World Heath Care Congress in Washington, D.C., according to the Washington Times .

“There are many, and I'm one of them, who believe that that actually will harm the pool in the exchange market,” Price said.

Price resigned last fall after reports that he was traveling on taxpayer-funded private planes.

While he was at Health and Human Services, Price said the individual mandate wasn't working and that people were choosing to go without health insurance because they weren't satisfied with the health plans' coverage, according to the Times.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: badinsurance; economics101; obamacare

This is a WTF headline

My first thought is that economics tell us that if people aren't forced to buy $#*+, then the price of $#*+ should go down, not up.

However, if you read into it, you need to page Captain Obvious. Once it becomes clear to younger, healthier people that ObaMaoCare may still be the law of the land (thanks to Juan McCain) but no longer has the power to fine them, then of course anyone with functioning brain cells will move to less costly plans or opt out of a costly policy with larded with idiotic mandates which they don't want altogether. Why is this even a news story?

1 posted on 05/02/2018 10:10:46 AM PDT by Vigilanteman
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To: Vigilanteman

Health insurance is way over-rated. The way my wife and I see it is that what we may need from time to time is health CARE. And when you pay for it yourself, it’s really pretty cheap. We don’t do health insurance.


2 posted on 05/02/2018 10:16:41 AM PDT by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm using my wife's account.)
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To: Vigilanteman

IIRC, nothing changed vs. the ‘law’ that mandated plans be O’care ‘compliant’ a/o various other ‘by way of govt gun’ ....recommendations.

IOW, O’Care is still alive and well, it’s the People whom will be further hurt that Congress allowed it to continue.


3 posted on 05/02/2018 10:19:37 AM PDT by i_robot73 (One could not count the number of *solutions*, if only govt followed\enforced the Constitution.)
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To: Vigilanteman

I concur. the elimination of the individual mandate will destroy obamacare. Oddly, it doesn’t take affect until NEXT tax year. In our case, because we’re 64 and “tobacco users”, even the bronze plan Is so expensive we get to use the 8% rule waiver, so we don’t even have to pay the penalty. We’ve saved roughly $52,000 in after tax dollars in un-necessary health insurance premiums since the day Obamacare went into effect.


4 posted on 05/02/2018 10:19:48 AM PDT by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm using my wife's account.)
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To: Vigilanteman

Because that is too long of an argument. GOP will raise insurance
prices is a better soundbyte.


5 posted on 05/02/2018 10:20:28 AM PDT by conservative98
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To: Vigilanteman

for those who still get their insurance through the exchanges, because the healthy people who were roped in to keep the cost down are leaving now that we don’t have to buy it anymore.

So yes, for that limited sector, it will raise the cost. For everyone else, the cost is lowered.


6 posted on 05/02/2018 10:27:00 AM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: Vigilanteman

The problem is that too many believe kicking a price down the road means a reduction in the actual cost. With health care you pay a higher price now which may reflect the true cost. Or you pay a much higher price later which is based on accumulated costs.


7 posted on 05/02/2018 10:44:45 AM PDT by lastchance (Credo.)
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To: Vigilanteman

Within the government insurance pool it absolutely will.


8 posted on 05/02/2018 10:45:53 AM PDT by jimfree (My17 y/o granddaughter continues to have more quality exec experience than an 8 year Obama.)
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To: Vigilanteman

Bullschtein!

Health insurance rates are going up, up, up anyway. And so are deductibles.

Because it is designed to.

Only the unleashing of free market forces will set both prices and care right. Simple as that.


9 posted on 05/02/2018 10:49:31 AM PDT by Paulie (America without Christ is like a Chemistry book without the periodic table.)
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To: Vigilanteman

Wait, wasn’t Tom the only one who could fix this mess?


10 posted on 05/02/2018 10:52:10 AM PDT by itsahoot (Welcome to the New USA where Islam is a religion of peace and Christianity is a mental disorder.)
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To: Vigilanteman

Absolute lie

Price said prices will likely go up for people who STAY IN OBAMA care. The story is complete knowing LIE. Another example of why “Journalists” have a 17% approval rating.


11 posted on 05/02/2018 11:18:11 AM PDT by MNJohnnie ("The political class is a bureaucracy designed to perpetuate itself" Rush Limbaugh)
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To: MNJohnnie
Premiums will escalate dramatically for almost ANYONE with a medical insurance plan.

Price's point was correct. Eliminating the penalty for the individual mandate without fixing all of the other problems with ObamaCare -- specifically the "minimum essential coverage" mandate, the elimination of annual and lifetime benefit caps, and the pre-existing coverage requirement -- is simply going to chase healthy people out of the insurance market entirely.

12 posted on 05/02/2018 11:32:37 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's.")
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To: Alberta's Child

Irrelevant. That not what Price said and the article is about what Price said.


13 posted on 05/02/2018 11:39:56 AM PDT by MNJohnnie ("The political class is a bureaucracy designed to perpetuate itself" Rush Limbaugh)
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To: Vigilanteman

I need a choice of affordable plans.

The PPACA plans were never affordable for me.

I don’t care if the prices of Kalorama, DC mansions rise.

I could never afford one.


14 posted on 05/02/2018 12:46:03 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Vigilanteman

“removing the federal requirement that everyone have health insurance”

There was never such a requirement and I am the living proof.


15 posted on 05/02/2018 12:50:14 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Vigilanteman

Disgruntled ex-employee


16 posted on 05/02/2018 12:52:45 PM PDT by Citizen Soldier ("And I was born to pull turnips!" Demelza Poldark)
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