Price reveals Trump's likely next move, destroying the ACA by sabotage

[grantcart]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-price-waiving-individual-mandate_us_597df94de4b02a4ebb760112?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

“All things are on the table to try to help patients,” Price told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”

Price, who President Donald Trump jokingly suggested last week he would fire if efforts to repeal the act failed, claimed that the mandate was contributing to higher health care costs.


“The individual mandate is actually one of those things that is driving up the cost for the American people in terms of coverage,” Price said. The mandate may result in higher individual costs for Americans who previously went without health insurance or purchased bare-bones plans eliminated by the Affordable Care Act ― commonly known as Obamacare.


But it also almost certainly functions as a check on overall costs for people who get their coverage on Obamacare’s individual insurance exchanges by bringing healthy people into the risk pool. Eliminating the mandate unilaterally is liable to create chaos in the individual exchanges as insurers scramble to offset the departure of healthy enrollees.


That’s why the insurance industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans wrote a letter to Congress opposing the so-called “skinny” repeal bill that the Senate rejected early Friday morning. The legislation would have abolished the individual mandate and the rule requiring large employers to offer their employees coverage. “Eliminating the individual coverage requirement by itself will likely result in fewer people covered and a deterioration of the risk pool, which will increase premiums,” AHIP wrote.

Significant evidence exists that one of the problems facing Obamacare is that the fine for violating the individual mandate is too modest to encourage enrollment, leading to a disproportionate ratio of sicker Americans in the exchanges. Insurers have responded by driving up premiums to offset the costs of coverage and withdrawing from some high-cost areas.

By taking out the mandate people would wait to purchase insurance only when they are sick, driving premiums up and having even fewer people in the pool. This kind of "adverse legislative selection" which requires insurance companies to cover everyone, regardless of pre existing conditions, but doesn't require universal participation would lead to a collapse of the markets as insurance would get increasingly expensive for smaller pools with an increasingly sickening census, called a "death spiral".

[RDANGELO]

1. That will definitely lose them the house and maybe the senate.

Trump is too out of touch with reality to comprehend that the Republicans now own health care. They are participating in a debate that they have already lost. What they need is a plan that actually helps people.

[loyalsister]

2. Yeah

I wonder if they think they can win with only voters who are healthy and only have healthy families and friends?

[global1]

10. The Dems Need To Come Out In Force & Detail How...

the Repugs sabotaged ACA from the beginning and point out when they & Trump use sabotage now to finish it off. The Dems need to make sure the American People know that Trump and the Repugs now own anything going forward in healthcare as it tanks.

[LenaBaby61]

12. That will definitely lose them the house and maybe the senate.

That's IF Dems etc. get out to VOTE.

Even more importantly, that's IF our votes count and we aren't GOP voter-suppressed on 'roids this next time around or aren't ruskie meddled with/cyber-hacked as well in 2018 and 2020.

[AwakeAtLast]

16. Only if the voting process is open and verified. n/t

[Snotcicles]

3. I think more people are becoming aware that removing the risk corridor is the real reason the

premiums are increasing. And for that we can thank little Marco Rubio.
I think the Democrats should zero in on that and call them out on it at every opportunity.

[Egnever]

7. You just made me aware

Thank you!

[Phoenix61]

9. Yep!

He's an evil little shit, ain't he?

[flamingdem]

11. Rubio really got away with it

Stealth destructive move

[better]

15. I have a pithy talking point relating to exactly this...

The exchanges are not crumbling because the ACA is fundamentally flawed.
They are crumbling because the ACA was sabotaged by fundamentalists.

[Cicada]

4. Margins in Wisconsin and Michigan were small

Spiking hundreds of thousands by killing the individual health insurance markets will very likely throw those states back to the Democrats. So I think it's a bluff. But it's possible they're just industrial strength morons.

[Still In Wisconsin]

6. Not gonna happen in WI. I can't speak for MI, OH, PA, but Wisconsin

is a locked-down red state. Walker won here easily, three times. I wish it wasn't so, but it is.

[LenaBaby61]

13. "Not gonna happen in WI. I can't speak for MI, OH, PA, but Wisconsin."

Yeah, I hear you.

I'm NOT seeing WI. going Dem in 2018 or for the foreseeable future unfortunately. Walker, the Kochs and the thuglicans in general have that state all sewn up and RED (Voter-suppressed, voter ID'd, voter-crosschecked etc.). SAME probably applies to MI., PA., and Florida. NC has a chance to go purple, and who knows what in hell has been happening to Dems in Florida since 2000 & Ohio since 2004?

thuglicans control every element of vote collecting and tallying all across this country. Like they want to give that up anytime soon if ever? They want a permanent thuglican majority running this country forever and into the ground and preserving it mostly for rich & privileged white males like themselves.

[Cicada]

14. Wisconsin margin 2016 was Trump by one percent

Some older redder folks die, replaced by younger bluer people. The percentage Hispanic will grow by one half of one percent or so. And those with 20% hikes in health insurance premiums will blame Trump in some cases. And Trump has 3 more years to screw things up.

[jpak]

5. Price is stone-cold lying POS

i do not believe a fucking word he says.

Nope

[Arazi]

8. So you don't think he'd fuck over the ins cos over the risk pool? I believe him nt

[smirkymonkey]

17. What a nasty piece of work!

He'll destroy people's lives just out of spite and vindictiveness. I can't even say what I wish that man's fate to be.

[FakeNoose]

18. Some insurance companies are suing the US Government

They've lost money in some states because of ACA higher risks/costs than originally estimated. I think we should see what's the outcome of those lawsuits, because it may pave the way towards fixing the problem in every state. Hopefully those lawyers know what they're doing and bring in a strong case.