The problem with that bit of illogic is....we already had a system whereby the 'truly indigent' got picked up by the gov't. It's called Medicaid. Which is now on steroids, thanks to Obamacare. Going back to the system we already had in place before Obamacare is not a novel, new idea (ie Trump's grand plan). It's what most opponents of Obamacare have been saying all along. Trump is trying to present that as "new". He's a moron.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of people out there that don't know any better that will cheer for "his plan" and think he thought it up all on his own. It would be hilarious if it were not such a pathetic picture of why we're circling the drain....ie LIV/voter stupidity.
Yes, but get rid of ObamaCare, and go back to what preceded it, and we still DON’T have a system where health insurance costs are driven down by nation-wide competition. When did we have “no lines”, to paraphrase Trump? Pre-1945, that’s when. [See: McCarran-Ferguson Act (1945)]
Where Trump wants to head is an entirely new place - it has never existed in the US in the realm of health insurance. (This is partially because “not having the the lines” is so old a policy, and partially because the present combination of circumstances (medical and economic environment) has very little in common with the pre-1945 landscape.
I would add that if one was not working for a generous employer immediately pre-ObamaCare, and not doing so well, income-wise, health insurance costs were already nearly impossible to afford. Medicaid was the only option. Plus, insurance costs were soaring. If that’s what ObamaCare opponents want to return to, within a few years the screams will be so bad that we’ll probably get single-payer, mandatory for everyone, right out the gate. (It’ll be as soon as the Dems get power, which will be quickly, in that event.) The period (10 years?) before ObamaCare is a horrible target.
What is needed is to add real competition into the equation, to hopefully get insurance costs vs. income back to, oh, say, what they were in the ‘80’s. How is this not new, when it’s not been tried in modern times?
BTW, in the 80’s I was sometimes barely making minimum wage, trying to get my business going / growing, and I still could afford health insurance. That, IMO, that is where Trump wants to head, with some form of Medicaid for the truly indigent. If you don’t consider that “new”, then fine, but it’s so old, it might as well be new. :-)
Now, all this leaves out the issues of rising health care costs themselves, a critical factor, but since nobody is addressing that, there’s nothing to compare between candidates. :-(