Date: 8/3/2017
If Obamacare implodes it will be due to sabotage by Trump. He will not enforce the mandate and or the tax on the rich that fund it. He also plans to get rid of the regulations on insurance companies about essential benefits and limits on deductibles and premiums. One such regulation limits insurers to taking only 20 percent of the premium as profit.
The House version for healthcare (AHCA) passed in May does not cover maternity, emergency room, addiction treatment, mental health or anything young people might use. Deductibles can go to $13,000 and premiums are not regulated. A young person would never buy this and an older person probably can’t afford it. It’s like giving your money to rich executives and getting nothing in return.
Democrats should fight this sabotage and keep Obamacare adding a public option. That is individuals would be allowed to buy into Medicare for the same rate seniors pay and do it while they are still working and paying the SS/Med tax (payroll tax). As years pass more and more people would choose the public option, even leaving employer healthcare to do so. This would turn into Medicare for all or single payer. Trump has praised the better healthcare of Canada and Australia which have single payer as most countries do. Truman tried to install this system in the 1940s when Europe and much of the world were setting it up but ran into opposition from certain wealthy interests.
Pressing for single payer all at once would be politically difficult but a public option in Obamacare would be a gradual transition. People would realize that cutting out the high salaried middlemen lowers overall cost in a major way. Socialized fire and police protection, K-12 education, court system, parks & rec, etc., all work well without expensive middlemen. Everyone pays for these services and the people who need it, use it.
Malita Brown
Wilbraham
