"Donald Trump likes Obamacare clauses 'very much'"

[$tevie]

Perhaps all is not lost:

US President-elect Donald Trump has said in an interview he is open to leaving intact key parts of President Barack Obama's healthcare bill.

Mr Trump, who has pledged repeatedly to repeal the 2010 law, signalled he was receptive to a compromise after visiting the White House on Thursday.

He told the Wall Street Journal he favours keeping two main parts of the bill because "I like those very much".

One is a ban on insurers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

The other provision that the president-elect told the newspaper he favours allows young adults to be insured on their parents' policies.

Mr Trump told the Journal it was his hour-and-a-half meeting with Mr Obama that had made him reconsider his calls for an all-out repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37953528

[Filliam H. Muffman]

It was just a suggestion, like everything else campaign related he has said in the last 14 months.

[GGD]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
It was just a suggestion, like everything else campaign related he has said in the last 14 months.

Because it seems like he's never looked in depth at the real issues involved with many things he's taken a position on, just goes by the sound bites he hears on FOX news.

[swampy]

Were you not listening? He has long said that there are some parts of ACA that are good. I guess you hated him so much that you never really listen or read his thought on the issues.

[mrbigstuff]

"And I suppose some are good clauses..."

He's a populist. Populists want to remain popular. You don't do that by taking away healthcare.

[michaelb]

$tevie wrote:
One is a ban on insurers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

I have posted this before but I will try again. A ban on a denial based on a preexisting condition doesn't make any sense separated from a process for setting the rate. Otherwise, the insurance company can just set your rate at 1000x or 10,000x the market price.

There are three deeply interrelated concepts:

"coverage for preexisting conditions": the policy covers conditions that existed before signing up
"guaranteed issue": the company will sign you up no matter what your medical history
"community rating": the cost of a policy is based on a shared risk pool, not the individual's medical history.

You can't really do one without the others.

[mrbigstuff]

Very interesting michaelb. Thanks for your insights.

[pdq]

michaelb wrote:
[quote=$tevie]
One is a ban on insurers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

I have posted this before but I will try again. A ban on a denial based on a preexisting condition doesn't make any sense separated from a process for setting the rate. Otherwise, the insurance company can just set your rate at 1000x or 10,000x the market price.

There are three deeply interrelated concepts:

"coverage for preexisting conditions": the policy covers conditions that existed before signing up
"guaranteed issue": the company will sign you up no matter what your medical history
"community rating": the cost of a policy is based on a shared risk pool, not the individual's medical history.

You can't really do one without the others.
Thanks for posting. It's true that you can't have one without the others.

If an insurance company can't refuse me for preexisting conditions, why should I buy health insurance before I have a health problem?

...and yeah, if they can instead offer to charge me a zillion dollars a month based on my preexisting conditions, how is that different than refusing me?

It seems to me that this is just a microcosm of what a Trump presidency will be. He will either do what he promised his supporters he would, which is terrible (deporting 11 million people, or ending Obamacare and insurance for 20 million Americans) or impossible (making Mexico pay for a wall, cutting taxes and reducing deficits)...

...or he'll just forget all those promises and hope that the saps who voted for him don't notice. Which is what I'm pulling for, personally, since most of what he promised them in terms of policy won't work.

[GGD]

swampy wrote:
Were you not listening? He has long said that there are some parts of ACA that are good. I guess you hated him so much that you never really listen or read his thought on the issues.

Here's an exact quote from speech and from his website. I'm not seeing what you describe. Perhaps you can point us to the parts we missed.

5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-relea...ican-vote1

On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare.

Completely repeal Obamacare. Our elected representatives must eliminate the individual mandate. No person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to.

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/h...are-reform

[$tevie]

Yeah, he said it repeatedly. I guess Swampy loved him so much that she never really listened or read his thoughts on the issues.