EDITORIAL: Obamacare could implode or explode if Trump tries to undermine — rather than fix — it
Then, when
"We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do. You just had to be against it," Ryan said at a
"Doing big things is hard," he said earlier in his remarks. This echoes Trump's lament that "nobody knew health care could be so complicated." Obviously, lots of people know health care policy, especially insurance, is very complicated, but Trump and Ryan weren't interested in listening to any of those people or hearing their ideas for a successful plan.
Instead, they perpetuate the dangerous myth that Obamacare, the derisive name for the ACA, will simultaneously implode and explode, as the president has tweeted.
Neither is true -- if Ryan and Trump don't undermine it.
The ACA has increased the number of people with health insurance. In 2008, nearly 17 percent of non-elderly Americans were uninsured, according to data from the
These people don't want to lose their insurance. After
Critics of the ACA say rising premiums doom the law. Premiums are rising, yes, and that is a problem. But they are rising at a slower rate than before the act was implemented. In other words, rising insurance costs are a problem, regardless of the status of the ACA. Of course, the more politicians talk about changing or gutting the act, the more unstable the market becomes because of unneeded uncertainty.
There are many ways to improve America's health insurance landscape. Instituting a universal, single-payer system, which is the norm in every other developed nation, would be the most straightforward. It, of course, would face stiff opposition in
On a smaller scale, lawmakers can learn the lessons from the doomed Republican plan. Americans appreciate the consumer protections in the ACA -- insurers can't drop your coverage or charge you more if you have a pre-existing condition, essential health care must be covered, young people can stay on their parents insurance until they are 26.
The option for states to expand
This is among the recommendations from
The Affordable Care Act needs tweaks, but it will neither implode nor explode if
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