TrumpCare vs. ObamaCare

I posted quite a few articles on D2L related to possible changed to the Affordable Care Act.  There are more after President Trump's State of the Union.  I read a transcript with sidebars to offer a fact check and more detailed explanation.

I think the recent New Yorker article on Donald Trump learning that healthcare is "complicated" offers some very good links, include the Kaiser News Health Tracking Poll, which I also posted on D2L.  The "complicated" article is telling.  "I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject,” President Donald Trump told a group of governors at the White House yesterday. “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated."

Posted on 2/28, Ryan Lizza deciphers it for us:

“Nobody knew” is Trumpspeak for “I just found out.” Large-scale reform of the American health-care system is one of the most complicated policy issues the government faces, as all of Trump’s modern predecessors learned.

“The health care reform story illuminates almost every aspect of the presidency,” David Blumenthal and James Morone write in The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office, a 2009 examination of how eleven Presidents, from to Franklin Roosevelt to George W. Bush, grappled with the issue. “Because health reform is excruciatingly difficult to win, it tests presidents’ ideas, heart, luck, allies, and their skill at running the most complicated government machinery in the world.” (The book is on Amazon, and you can Read Inside.)

Lizza discussed the dived in the Republican party and ends noting that in their history of health-care reform, Blumenthal and Morone conclude with eight conditions necessary for passing major reform. The first, and perhaps most important, is “passion.”

“Major health care reform is virtually impossible, difficult to understand, swarming with interests, powered by money, and resonating with popular anxiety,” they write. “The first key to success is a president who cares about it deeply.” Any President who is just learning the basic fact that health care is “complicated” has failed the passion test. And without that, little else matters. 

The title of the post is based on another New Yorker article in the March 6 issue by Atul Gwande on
TrumpCare vs. ObamaCare. In his commentary, Gwande points out that Republicans in Congress are facing the wrath of constituents who don’t want to lose those gains they now have with Obamacare.
But even if there is a stalemate in Congress, insurers must decide by April whether to offer a plan for the exchanges in 2018, and at what price. That requires certainty about the future. Pitchforks have their uses, but crafting health-care policy calls for more delicate instruments. The basic functioning of the health-care system and American lives are at stake.

Also today, 2/28, I read an NPR Health Shots article about the portability of health insurance.  In that article, it asks,

Why should a health plan be tied to where you work or live? The answer, of course, is "it's complicated." As Republicans debate ideas for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, portability might play a central role in their plan. So how would that work?

The problem is that portability Is hard to define.   The notion of "portability" means that consumers can stick with the same insurer, the same benefits and the same coverage limits, even if they move or change jobs. In the current policy discussion, though, portability is more likely to be viewed as a means for consumers to get access — possibly with the help of a tax credit — to a variety of health plans.   But, the author (who is with KNN) says that "if keeping the same plan is the goal, that would be very tricky. The health care system is just not built that way."  Read more to find out why.

I thought I would post this on the blog for you to comment, as well as add articles here for you to read.  I did not pick these articles just to be critical of President Trump, but, as you know, when it comes to healthcare, it takes passion, careful consideration, and thoughtful policy discussions.  Feel free to add your own thoughts, or your own readings.