Investor’s Business Daily posted an article today about Donald Trump‘s plan to reform ObamaCare. Most Americans who have had to change doctors, had their health insurance premiums rise drastically, or had their deductible amounts skyrocket would consider almost anything on that front good news.
The article reports:
Trump’s written plan at least starts on the right foot, promising to repeal ObamaCare on Day One, and recognizing that Republicans have already developed replacement plans. “The President and a Republican congress,” Trump’s position paper states, must “lead the effort to bring much-needed free-market reforms to the health care industry.”
As with most GOP plans, Trump would lift restrictions on interstate sales of insurance, thereby letting consumers shop around for plans in states that don’t impose a host of costly benefit mandates.
He’d also expand Health Savings Accounts, the one reform that has been a proven success and a standard feature in every GOP reform, although he’s still vague on the specifics.
And Trump proposes to reform Medicaid by turning it into a fixed block grant to states. This is a must-do change, since as currently structured, Medicaid’s matching grant formula only encourages waste and fraud. Trump is right that with a block grant, “states will have the incentives to seek out and eliminate fraud.”
To remove the tax distortions between employer-provided insurance (which is tax exempt) and individual insurance (which has to be bought with after-tax dollars), Trump would allow taxpayers to deduct the full cost of their individual premiums from taxes.
The article goes on to explain that the changes would provide savings for wealthier Americans while not doing much for poorer Americans. However, since the wealthy pay more, you could easily make a case for that.
The article also points out the dangers of depending on Donald Trump to fix healthcare:
This is a guy, after all, who bragged not too long ago that he was “very liberal” on health care, and who often talks as though he still is. The plan says nothing about Trump’s oft-repeated and absolutely horrible proposal to have the government negotiate (that is, fix) drug prices for Medicare. He is still completely vague about how he plans to cover everyone and “have the government pay for it.” And the plan doesn’t mention Trump’s stated support for ObamaCare’s “guaranteed issue” regulations.
Which Trump would ultimately emerge is anyone’s guess. And, since Trump says that everything is negotiable, who is to say he wouldn’t start cutting deals with Democrats as soon as he gets the keys to the White House?
Voters who want ObamaCare replaced with real free-market reforms are taking a big gamble if they think Trump is the man to actually make it happen.
Don’t believe anything until the ink is dry on the President’s signature, whoever that President may be.