To chip away at healthcare restrictions imposed by Obamacare, President Trump signed an Executive Order Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States. This executive order is aimed at easing PPACA restrictions and reducing the burdens felt by small businesses.
Here are some of the order’s key directives:
Association Health Plans (AHPs) – the order endorses the expansion of AHPs allowing similar small businesses to access this type of program to reduce administrative costs and reduce risk, bringing affordable choices to hourly wage earners, farmers and entrepreneurs. The Department of Labor is instructed to amend current regulation to allow for the expansion.
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) – the order issues a directive for the expansion of HRAs, including those offered by employers, to allow for greater flexibility and access for individuals to help them finance their healthcare.
Short Term, Limited-Duration Insurance (STLDI) – the order directs the Secretaries of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services (HHS), to expand availability of STLDI and to extend coverage periods. It also allows consumers to renew these forms of coverage.
Facilitate the Purchase of Insurance across State Lines – this order states that the administration will facilitate the ability to purchase coverage across State lines and offer high-quality care at affordable prices.
President Trump has indicated that the cost-sharing reduction payments, often referred to as subsidies under Obamacare, will be phased out, but the administration expects that more competition and less restriction will increase competition and reduce the costs of healthcare premiums.
According to the executive order, Obamacare “severely limited the choice of healthcare options available to many Americans and has produced large premium increases in many State individual markets for health insurance. The average exchange premiums in the 39 States that are using www.healthcare.gov in 2017 is more than double the average overall individual market premium record in 2013. The PPACA has also largely failed to provide meaningful choice or competition between insurers, resulting in one-third of America’s counties having only one insurer offering coverage on their applicable government-run exchange in 2017.”
The Trump administration has indicated that the president would continue to use the power of the executive branch to dismantle provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), since the GOP was unable to pass a repeal and replace plan last month.
Many good points were made. However, insurance companies have always been a problem with deciding who and what to cover – playing God with peoples lives. Hospitals and medical health facilities have always overcharged insurance companies. Example, I had a minor outpatient surgery in 1989. I paid $250 cash total cost in advance of the surgery. A week later I received a bill from the hospital for $900 that listed drugs and band-aids and more that were never used on me. I called the hospital to ask why I received the bill for $900. The answer was “Oh, that was if you had insurance. It was automatically generated. Just disregard it.” Somehow someone needs to figure out how to control the collusion between hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and drug manufacturers to really control health care costs. More recently, my mother was hospitalized several times four years ago. She passed away three years ago and because she had very good insurance I’m still receiving bills from doctors that were never involved. And don’t get me started on good patient care. Some people receive excellent care while others struggle with finding medical professionals who are really compassionate professionals. Those terrible doctors make people addicted to opioids where they over prescribe for pain from like back surgeries, Because of those thoughtless and uncaring doctors, those people wind up going on social security disability because they are now addicts to legal drugs and can no longer function in their day to day lives. Why these people don’t sue for medical malpractice is obvious – they are too messed up with the addiction. Sorry for the rant, but insurance is a very small part of really big problems created by our health care systems. And scarier yet is it is the best in the world.
Why should government “license” health care providers? A “license” constitutes permission granted by a ‘competent authority to its recipient to engage in otherwise immoral or illegal activities. The federal government is not “competent” in any way shape or form. Everything the federal government handles degrades in efficiency and quality to the point of uselessness. The creation of a central bank by congress has destroyed the economy. The national debt is a prime example that the D.C. cult is the most egregiously incompetent institution in the history of the world. “Licensing” is nothing more than the creation of a monopoly. The test for any health-care provider should be the ability to obtain and maintain a policy of malpractice insurance from a private-sector insurer. When government meddles in the private sector, destruction follows.
So the Federal Government is ‘not competent in any way shape or form’? You DO get your mail delivered on a daily basis, correct? And you DO realize thousands of military personnel are serving worldwide on your behalf, correct? And you DO know that FEMA personnel were recently dispatched to rescue many citizens in both Texas and Florida, correct? These are just a few examples. THINK before you post, Ryan, because you appear to be a certified IDIOT.
Association Health Plans (AHPs) are worth a try but it needs to be clarified how state insurance departments will regulate AHPs.
I remember when Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements (MEWAs) were introduced to give more health care buying power to small employers. MEWAs were not sufficiently regulated and many went bankrupt leaving many participants with unpaid medical bills. We don’t want to repeat those same mistakes again.
The object of ObamaCare was to achieve “single payer”, where a panel would decide who gets medical benefits AND WHO DOESN’T. The criteria for that decision is based on economics: if you are already 75, then you have little value, your medical cost to keep you alive is a bad investment, so you are allowed to die without medical help. Bottom line: if you die, then you are no longer a burden on society. Burden? Yeah, like medicare, medicade, social security, medical care of the elderly that the younger people don’t (yet) need. So the plan is to kill old people by withholding medical care that would otherwise allow them to live an additional 10 years. Sounds just like Nazi Germany and today’s UK. When they get to single payer, get your things in order because you are soon supposed to die.
When you have an health insurance policy that has a yearly deductible of $15,000 per person and it cost you somewhere between $900 and $2,500 a month….you really don’t have healthcare….what you have is an insurance policy that keeps you from having to pay a fine…ooops, a fine is Unconstitutional….a tax (Roberts says this is Constitutional). It is time for people in this country to stand on their own two feet and be held accountable. America is not a socialist nation yet and other people should not be having to take care of you. If you need help, that is what the churches are for….to help people in need…..not the government that is way out of their boundaries as the Constitution does NOT give them the authorities they have been taking.
Healthcare insurance before Obamacare worked and was affordable. In most cases there were no huge deductibles unless the tax individual chose one to have a lower premium (their choice). The bast part is that the government was not involved in our health care! The only thing that was needed was to tweak the system to be help people with pre existing conditions & the uninsured. Keep in mind some people chose not to be insured (these were mostly young people with no family).
You’ll notice that there is almost NO discussion on Capitol Hill anymore about how well the previous system worked. Both financially and from a quality of care and personal choice perspective. How all that was needed were a few, minor tweaks to the then existing system before Obamacare. Instead the entire conversation is now centered almost exclusively around having to preserve the taxpayer-based subsidies for a certain demographic of Obamacare enrollee and maintaining the current status quo of massively over-priced and ever-escalating premiums and annual deductibles. Gone is any rational discussion of what is best for the vast majority of the people and instead both Democrats and Republicans are squabbling over the 5 to 7 percent that make up the Obamacare taxpayer subsidized demographic group. Ninety percent of which are life-long Democrat voters.
Yes PaulE. Once a freebie is in place it’s hard to get rid of & most of the Republicans (non conservative) don’t want to work hard enough to come up with a plan that isn’t Obama-lite. They refused to consider Rand Paul’s plan at all. If they repeal Obamacare that will get rid of the premium increasing mandates but it’s all about their j& then give control back to the states with HHS responsibility being only oversight.
Sorry hit post before I finished & reread. Anyway the way I see it is some Republicans are more concerned with their jobs & losing power than admitting there was nothing wrong with pre Obamacare insurance plans and going back to them.
Nothing wrong with Obamacare? You can’t be serious! I almost died because of it! Only the maker of the compound saved
My life, NOT this coveted Obummercare
Irv C: please reread my comment. I said there was nothing wrong with PRE Obamacare plan.
Irv, re-read Ham’s statement: she said, “pre Obamacare.”
Exactly correct HAM. This is all about politicians of both parties being more concerned about garnering potential votes by pandering to a segment of the Democrat Party. It’s also equally about these same politicians of both parties collecting a steady stream of campaign contributions from the insurance companies that have received a huge, unearned financial windfall under Obamacare. With a bit over $7 billion a year in government subsidies (that’s taxpayer money spent illegally to bribe the insurance companies to stay in the Obamacare market, which in and of itself is NOT financially self-sustainable without it), which by the way have already been ruled completely illegal in federal court, being sent their way each year under Obamacare, insurance companies don’t want that cash flow to stop. So they are more than willing to spend a lot of money on campaign donations and heavy lobbying efforts in Washington to maintain the status quo. Bottom line it is plain to see which Congressional politicians have been willing to sell out the American public for the sake of some potential votes and some rather large campaign donations. Fortunately for them, a lot of the American public still doesn’t get the game that is being played out right in front of their faces.
As we know obama wasn’t for America. Trump will fix this outrageous thievery pushed on America’s Citizens.
With all that President Trump is doing, I truly hope he will consider investigating the way food is altered in this country. There are those of us who don’t want GMO food, nor food laced with pesticides. We want organic food and alternative ways to approach our health issues if we have any. Insurance companies will pay for a RX, but not a vitamin or a compounded prescription. We need help, but no one will listen.
You’ve made a powerful statement: Many of us are now dealing with Inflamation-related issues as a result of genetically modified wheat that was fine for saving starving people in Africa but is responsible for the devastation of diabetes in the US. Buy gluten-free products to start. And yes, your local independent compounding pharmacist can make ointments that deliver pain relief without destroying your liver, pancreas, etc. You’ll be amazed.
Connie Brown: just wanted to make a comment about ointments for inflammation. I use BioFreeze. It works for me with my sciatica. It’s topical & over the counter. It is now carried by Walmart. May not work for everyone but just wanted to mention it. I find the ointment works better than the spray.
Hate to burst your bubble, but the primary reason most Americans have diabetes is because they are overweight. They need to become ‘glutton free’ before ‘gluten free’.
Yes, the Standard American Diet (SAD) has debilitated it’s population; however, many of us who are decidedly not overweight or diabetic are finding that GMO (wheat) flour has changed our biomes.
Ann, a move to reinvigorate small farming and local producers would make it much easier to make choices, like the raw milk issue. Getting government and their central planners out of the way is the problem, that and mega-farms and Corps that limit all competition from the little guy. Since we either eat what they produce or do without, choice is impossible. Back yard gardens might help, but go only so far. Animal products are hard to aquire from city or town back yards, and the space is limited. Do you remember the old standard of one man, a mule and forty acres for raising a family? Of course, without a woman, it was nearly impossible. Extended families were once the standard. Then, came the nuclear family. What is next is no family. Best try to hang on to what we’ve got, while always fighting back and trying to improve the purpose upon which liberty was founded.
Healthcare should be an individuals decision. Just remember, health insurance is not healthcare. The free market in medical provisions worked fine. Government meddleing is what got in the way.
How, specifically, does the government centrally plan farming and agriculture? Hint: it does not.
Have you ever heard of the Dept. of Agriculture? Do you know anything about subsidies? How about the mandate for ethanol in our gasoline? And how about Arthur Daniels Midland (ADM)?
Oh, and do not forget the mega farms providing all that corn.
Absolutely. It’s extremely difficult to remain healthy when we only have limited options.
Horse manure is ‘organic’. And your point is?
So’s the stuff your peddling.
er…you’re…Superman.
Organic food is available. Let it remain a peoples’ choice and not impose it on everyone. GMO’s are innocent until proven guilty. The problem for both GMO and organic farmers is when adjoining fields get cross-pollenated. Ann, if you are a farmer, I would like to hear more of your perspective.