ObamaCare didn’t improve health insurance for Americans. ObamaCare required people long past child-bearing years to pay for insurance that covered children.. ObamaCare forced single men to pay for maternity care–it was the only way the program could be cost effective.  Other than that, if you chose not to buy insurance, you had to pay a fine. It is ironic to me that the fine was paid to the government–the insurance companies did not receive the money from the uninsured.

Well, Congress obviously was not interested in repealing ObamaCare, so we are still stuck with it. What can we do for people who can’t afford health insurance and yet are forced to pay a fine because they are not insured? That makes about as much sense as debtor’s prison.

Yesterday Investor’s Business Daily posted an article about some temporary relief for people who cannot afford high-priced health insurance policies.

The article reports:

This week, Trump’s Health and Human Services department issued regulations that will let insurers sell short-term insurance plans that don’t have to comply with ObamaCare’s onerous market regulations and benefit mandates.

To prevent people from escaping ObamaCare, President Obama limited these plans to just three months. Trump would let them last just shy of one year.

“Americans need more choices in health insurance so they can find coverage that meets their needs,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

…As it is, ObamaCare isn’t working. Despite promises from Democrats that it would stabilize the individual insurance market, it’s had the opposite effect. Where there was healthy competition, there is often one insurer. Where double-digit premium increases were a rarity before ObamaCare, they’ve become a grim routine since.

This option isn’t likely to draw people away from ObamaCare, because millions aren’t enrolled anyway because they don’t want it or can’t afford it.

The article points out that one problem with ObamaCare is that young people did not sign up for it–the premiums were too high and the deductibles were too high. The young people signing up was supposed to impact the actuary tables in a way that would make ObamaCare cost effective. The changes in the new regulations will help bring free market principles into the health insurance picture and will allow people a wider range of insurance choices.