EDITORIAL: While Congress naps, Trump acts on Obamacare
Nobody will know for weeks if not months how the order will pan out: Trump's edict depends on federal agencies' regulations to enact it. We hope the rules prompt insurers to offer new policies that attract consumers.
Trump's aim -- more competition, more flexibility, less regulation -- is to bring back to the ranks of the insured many people who've been priced out of the market. Under Obamacare, insurers have left markets or raised premiums to cover high costs.
Under the order, small businesses and some individuals should be able to band together and buy insurance via what's known as association health plans. Those policies probably would be less comprehensive and rigid -- and thus less expensive -- than the pricey policies mandated by Obamacare.
The order also aims to expand the availability of short-term insurance policies. Those offer limited benefits for people between jobs or young adults no longer eligible to be covered under their parents' health plans. The Obama administration said those policies couldn't last more than three months; Trump's order extends that to nearly a year. Good.
It may be, as critics charge, that the Trump changes aggravate the flight of some Americans from the Obamacare policies. That is, the forthcoming rules could help lure younger, healthier people into cheaper, less comprehensive plans. That would leave older, sicker people in traditional plans and drive up the costs for them.
But remember, many Americans already face double digit increases in Obamacare premiums this year. As they did last year. And the year before. Here in
The sobering context for evaluating any new government health care proposal is that a yearslong decline has reached a perilous point: These fast-rising premiums and narrowing choices of health providers threaten to capsize Obamacare.
We hope Trump's order will ramp up pressure on
Any new effort to repair Obamacare should be bipartisan. Against overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we still believe that is possible, and apparently, so does Trump. The president recently reached out to New York Democratic Sen.
Like or loathe Trump's order, it reflects more urgency than
Absent a renewed congressional effort, this won't be the last executive order. Trump says he plans to save "the American people from the nightmare of Obamacare."
If so, we'll evaluate any future orders one by one. Better, though, that members of
Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
___
(c)2017 the Chicago Tribune
Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
He gambled by not getting health insurance, then crashed his bike. Did he get what he deserved?
Trump’s executive order on health care blasted by Washington state officials
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News