--------------------
Did you know that Obamacare is so important, so successful, so needed that it cannot be replaced, except by "single payer?" That's what Dr. Reich believes.
Did you know that Obamacare is so important, so successful, so needed that it cannot be replaced, except by "single payer?" That's what Dr. Reich believes.
----------------------
Republicans are preparing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and have promised to replace it with something that doesn’t leave more than 20 million Americans stranded without health insurance. (we note for the record that the uninsured rate is at 9.1%, which means 29 million Americans are still without coverage. Apparently Dr. Reich is untroubled by the fact that Obamacare did not deliver on its promises, that in fact premiums are going up by an average of 24.92%, wait times are increasing, doctors are quitting, and insurers are leaving the exchanges. Republicans don't need to repeal Obamacare, it's going to collapse all by itself.)
But they still haven’t come up with a replacement. "We haven’t coalesced around a solution for six years,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton admitted last week. “Kicking the can down the road for a year or two years isn’t going to make it any easier to solve.“ (Woops. Senator Cotton didn't say there wasn't a replacement. He said the Republicans haven't agreed on a plan, which means there is more than one proposal.)
They won’t solve it. They can’t and won’t replace Obamacare, for three big reasons.
First, Republicans say they want their replacement to be “market-based.” But Obamacare is already market based – relying on private, for profit health insurers. ("Relying on private" insurers is not the same thing as "market based." In fact, it is preposterous to suggest that thousands of pages of laws and regulations is market based.)
That’s already a problem. The biggest health insurers – Anthem, Aetna, Humana, Cigna, and United Health – are so big they can get the deals they want from the government by threatening to drop out of any insurance system Republicans come up with. Several have already dropped out of Obamacare. (Oops. Dr. Reich admits the system is failing, but he blames it on insurers.)
Even now they’re trying to merge into far bigger behemoths that will be able to extort even better terms from the Republicans.
Second, every part of Obamacare depends on every other part. (That is, those thousands of pages of legislation and regulation are so far reaching, so insinuated, so overarching, that Dr. Reich thinks the cancer can't be separated from the body. Talk about a glowing recommendation for keeping it!)
Republicans are preparing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and have promised to replace it with something that doesn’t leave more than 20 million Americans stranded without health insurance. (we note for the record that the uninsured rate is at 9.1%, which means 29 million Americans are still without coverage. Apparently Dr. Reich is untroubled by the fact that Obamacare did not deliver on its promises, that in fact premiums are going up by an average of 24.92%, wait times are increasing, doctors are quitting, and insurers are leaving the exchanges. Republicans don't need to repeal Obamacare, it's going to collapse all by itself.)
But they still haven’t come up with a replacement. "We haven’t coalesced around a solution for six years,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton admitted last week. “Kicking the can down the road for a year or two years isn’t going to make it any easier to solve.“ (Woops. Senator Cotton didn't say there wasn't a replacement. He said the Republicans haven't agreed on a plan, which means there is more than one proposal.)
They won’t solve it. They can’t and won’t replace Obamacare, for three big reasons.
First, Republicans say they want their replacement to be “market-based.” But Obamacare is already market based – relying on private, for profit health insurers. ("Relying on private" insurers is not the same thing as "market based." In fact, it is preposterous to suggest that thousands of pages of laws and regulations is market based.)
That’s already a problem. The biggest health insurers – Anthem, Aetna, Humana, Cigna, and United Health – are so big they can get the deals they want from the government by threatening to drop out of any insurance system Republicans come up with. Several have already dropped out of Obamacare. (Oops. Dr. Reich admits the system is failing, but he blames it on insurers.)
Even now they’re trying to merge into far bigger behemoths that will be able to extort even better terms from the Republicans.
Second, every part of Obamacare depends on every other part. (That is, those thousands of pages of legislation and regulation are so far reaching, so insinuated, so overarching, that Dr. Reich thinks the cancer can't be separated from the body. Talk about a glowing recommendation for keeping it!)
Trump says he’d like to continue to bar insurers from denying coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions.
But this popular provision depends on healthy people being required to pay into the insurance pool, a mandate that Republicans vow to eliminate. (Hmm. That doesn't sound very market based to me. The market creates an environment where customers come together with businesses in a voluntary association. Apparently Dr. Reich favors businesses being forced to accept customers they don't want.)
The GOP also wants to keep overall costs down, but they haven’t indicated how. (This is a flat-out lie. Dr. Reich just admitted that the Republicans had their own plands.)
But this popular provision depends on healthy people being required to pay into the insurance pool, a mandate that Republicans vow to eliminate. (Hmm. That doesn't sound very market based to me. The market creates an environment where customers come together with businesses in a voluntary association. Apparently Dr. Reich favors businesses being forced to accept customers they don't want.)
The GOP also wants to keep overall costs down, but they haven’t indicated how. (This is a flat-out lie. Dr. Reich just admitted that the Republicans had their own plands.)
More than 80 percent of Americans who buy health insurance through Obamacare receive federal subsidies. (That is, they're on the dole, and being funded by people who either can't afford coverage themselves and are paying the penalty so that others can be subsidized, or they are paying an average annual premium of $15,000. And he criticizes the Republicans?)
Yet Republicans have no plan for raising the necessary sums.
Which gets us to the third big reason Republicans can’t come up with a replacement. Revoking the tax increases in Obamacare – a key part of the repeal – would make it impossible to finance these subsidies. (Dr. Reich presumes that government must be involved, thus his support for these onerous taxes.)
The two biggest of these taxes – a 3.8-percentage-point surtax on dividends, interest and other unearned income; and a 0.9-percentage-point increase in the payroll tax that helps fund Medicare – are also the most progressive. They apply only to people earning more than $200,000 per year. (Notice that healthcare is be premised on who can afford to pay, not who is sick vs. healthy. Thus, Obamacare is not insurance, it is a social program.)
Immediately repealing these taxes, as the GOP says it intends to do, will put an average of $33,000 in the hands of the richest 1 percent this year alone, and a whopping $197,000 into the hands of the top 0.1 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center. (A left-leaning organization, which means leftist bias.)
It would also increase the taxes of families earning between $10,000 and $75,000 – including just about all of Trump’s working class voters. (Again Dr. Reich assumes a large government involvement.)
Worse yet, eliminating the payroll tax increase immediately pushes Medicare’s hospital fund back toward the insolvency that was looming before Obamacare became law. (It's already insolvent.)
Ultimately, the only practical answer to these three dilemmas is Medicare for all – a single payer system. But Republicans would never go for it. (Oh, so it can be replaced? With even more government? Why would Dr. Reich support single payer after singing the praises of Obamacare?)
So without Obamacare, Republicans are left with nothing. Zilch. Nada. (An unsupported assertion.)
Except the prospect of more than 20 million people losing their health insurance, and a huge redistribution from the working class to the very rich.
Which gets us to the third big reason Republicans can’t come up with a replacement. Revoking the tax increases in Obamacare – a key part of the repeal – would make it impossible to finance these subsidies. (Dr. Reich presumes that government must be involved, thus his support for these onerous taxes.)
The two biggest of these taxes – a 3.8-percentage-point surtax on dividends, interest and other unearned income; and a 0.9-percentage-point increase in the payroll tax that helps fund Medicare – are also the most progressive. They apply only to people earning more than $200,000 per year. (Notice that healthcare is be premised on who can afford to pay, not who is sick vs. healthy. Thus, Obamacare is not insurance, it is a social program.)
Immediately repealing these taxes, as the GOP says it intends to do, will put an average of $33,000 in the hands of the richest 1 percent this year alone, and a whopping $197,000 into the hands of the top 0.1 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center. (A left-leaning organization, which means leftist bias.)
It would also increase the taxes of families earning between $10,000 and $75,000 – including just about all of Trump’s working class voters. (Again Dr. Reich assumes a large government involvement.)
Worse yet, eliminating the payroll tax increase immediately pushes Medicare’s hospital fund back toward the insolvency that was looming before Obamacare became law. (It's already insolvent.)
Ultimately, the only practical answer to these three dilemmas is Medicare for all – a single payer system. But Republicans would never go for it. (Oh, so it can be replaced? With even more government? Why would Dr. Reich support single payer after singing the praises of Obamacare?)
So without Obamacare, Republicans are left with nothing. Zilch. Nada. (An unsupported assertion.)
Except the prospect of more than 20 million people losing their health insurance, and a huge redistribution from the working class to the very rich.
No comments:
Post a Comment