EDITORIAL: Health care battle lives on
"We're going to be living with 'Obamacare' for the foreseeable future," said House Speaker
Yet that's a big political risk because ACA provisions are far more popular than its faulty implementation.
Pre-existing conditions can't be a factor in obtaining a policy. Young adults younger than 26 can remain on their parents' policies. Older Americans cannot be charged more than three times as much as their younger counterparts for a comparable policy.
Insurers are required to cover "essential benefits," including outpatient care, emergency services, hospitalization, pregnancy, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance abuse treatment, prescription drugs, rehabilitation, laboratory and diagnostic tests, preventive care (including birth control), wellness services and pediatric care, including children's dental and vision services.
Only 9.1 percent of Americans now are uninsured compared to 16.3 percent in 2010. The ACA expanded the
Its survival may depend on whether the
Trump also issued an executive order to "minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the Act," which could mean abandoning penalties for ACA mandates -- individuals lacking coverage and businesses failing to offer coverage to employees.
And Obamacare could fall under its own weight. Insurers are wary of its formulas making it more attractive to older people and those with medical problems rather than healthy, younger people. A third of all counties have only one ACA marketplace option.
"This is not all that hard to figure out, except this," said former House Speaker
Its version of health care reform seemed driven by the twin Republican goals of eliminating ACA's taxes on the wealthy and reducing its
The
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But it was skewed against the poor and the elderly, putting the brakes on
The nonpartisan
The jeopardized Obamacare has increased in popularity from 43 percent to 49 percent, according to a
The
Ryan couldn't afford those defections with
Now the political parties will have to weigh fixing the ACA or calculating any advantage if it collapses. Given the dysfunctional nature of partisan politics today when even the party in power lacks cohesion, we suspect they'll focus on capitalizing on fallout rather than acting responsibly.
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