As the Trump administration pushes forward with its work to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, (ACA), his opponents continue to spout their message that he is destroying healthcare. This would be difficult if they were to report the same information that Trump is sharing, like the many testimonials of people who cannot access healthcare using the ACA.
The ACA tells those who use it that they have healthcare insurance, but the premiums are so high and there are so many loopholes that many middle-class Americans are unable to use it. As anticipated, the ACA does not cater to anyone whose income rises above poverty levels. This is why republicans have been calling it an entitlement. It encourages low-income earners to remain, low-income earners while providing little to no benefit to anyone with above poverty level earnings.
Donald Trump has been displaying an impressive admixture of strength and flexibility in his dealings with Congress during this debate. As he faces the hostility of his opponents on every topic, he shows both determination in the pursuit of fulfilling his campaign promises, and a willingness to compromise. This combination of virtues is likely to pay off, and the early signs are already present.
He’s been meeting with the various groups of house republicans; moderates who fear the cuts to the ACA are too severe, and the conservatives who believe that Trump’s revision of the ACA is just a softened version of the original.
Donald Trump made his fortune with his negotiation skills, and he is using them to deal with these groups very effectively. To appease one side, he is offering tax credits for the elderly to help them buy health insurance while decreasing the premiums they would have to pay. For the other side, Trump is tabling ideas about work requirements for Medicaid, reducing the cost of the premiums, and reducing the services that the forthcoming healthcare act would deliver.
Now, many are saying that it appears quite likely that Trump will get the votes he needs in both the House and the Senate to move his bill forward. It appears that despite the vociferous claims that Trump is not presidential, unprofessional, and unqualified for the job- his work ethic and his negotiation skills are proving otherwise.
While it may be a surprise that Trump is making hay on the healthcare issue, it’s important to remember that this is not the issue over which the establishment is fighting him. They are fighting him over the relevance of NATO- which is threatened by his friendly ideas toward Russia. Plus, with so much GOP representatives now in power after the election, much of the existing government is aligned with his goals on healthcare.
After all, as veteran conservative pundit Dick Morris points out, the ACA is 60% a welfare program. That is to say that it is designed to support subsistence living for democrat voters who believe they depend on democrats in office for their wellbeing.
As Mr. Morris points out, 40% of the ACA is an insurance program for working people who have never had insurance or have lost it and 60% of the program is for the poor. That 60% involves no payment of premiums and no active engagement with an insurance provider- that it is simply the medical arm of the welfare program.
It’s a shrewd plan to have in place for a political party that depends on the votes of those who believe they are dependent on handouts. But for conservatives, it’s just a lot of pork, as they say.
The Medicare program has been in existence since 1964, but the ACA is new. Former president Obama simply intermixed the two programs- not without some skill and subtlety- to make up the Obamacare package. That is to say that the ACA puts people who fall below the poverty line on Medicare.
In the end analysis, the ACA made Americans more dependent on the state for their healthcare. Many of those who could afford to buy healthcare before the law was passed were suddenly forced to pay into the ACA and see only ACA approved doctors.
It has been good for the less well off. But it sucked in those who were self-sufficient- making them legally dependent on a healthcare insurance scheme which deprived them of fair pricing and their free choice.
In essence, the ACA was designed to force the middle class and small business owners to fund medical welfare. And it’s a program whose days are numbered under the tenure of Donald Trump.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
