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Popular Vote Loser Donald Trump says there's no rush to get his as-of-yet completely undefined but "wonderful" plan ready to put in Obamacare's place. It will take until the end of this year or possibly sometime in 2018, he says. That's fine, he says. Has he talked to his pick for Health and Human Services about that?
Tom Price spent years railing against Obamacare. Now he’ll finally have sweeping power to do something about it.
The Georgia Republican congressman is on the verge of becoming the Trump administration’s top health care official, armed with broad authority to begin unwinding Obamacare by using as much executive power as possible, even as Congress struggles to find consensus on a plan to repeal and replace the health care law. First, he could ax Obamacare's mandate ensuring coverage for contraception and give insurers more latitude to determine which health benefits they will — and won’t — pay for. Those changes will likely be paired with stricter monitoring of Obamacare enrollees, as the administration aims to win over jittery health plan executives with policies that prioritize insurance market predictability and profitability. […]
But even as Congress spins its wheels, Price can push forward by using his discretion to undo crucial elements of Obamacare. That’s largely thanks to the Obama administration, which granted its health officials authority to write and implement hundreds of rules tied the law. The Trump administration now plans to use that same license to undo as much of Obamacare as it can.
That's a bit of historical revisionism from Politico (I know, you're shocked). It's thanks to how extremely complex legislation must be written and implemented, but also an outgrowth of the fact that Republicans in Congress flatly refused to work with the administration on any necessary fixes. Those facts aside, it is true that Price will have an awful lot of power to chip away at what are some of the key elements for all the people who have health insurance.
He's promised the health industry—including insurers—"a level of support and stability in the market," which allows him to focus on limiting what insurance actually does that's good. Like cover people's healthcare needs. For example, a minimum set of benefits like contraceptive coverage (Price has particularly railed against that one, saying that the individual "religious freedoms—are to take a back seat to the wishes and the will of Washington bureaucrats) or maternity coverage or mental health coverage shouldn't have to be included. He will have some power to regulate your expansive health insurance away.
That doesn't just affect people who have Obamacare plans—those are industry-wide reforms in the law that apply to everyone no matter where they get their coverage. And it can happen as soon as Price gets his corrupt ass in the HHS cabinet chair. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress will continue to fail to come up with any alternatives to fix anything. So maybe Senate Republicans should be in such a rush to get Price installed. After all, they'll be the ones holding the bag in 2018.