Donald Trump will be sworn-in as the 45th president of the United States Friday. In an interesting twist, GOP members of the House and Senate went ahead and started rolling forward with much of Trump’s platform.
The first target came as no surprise to most - The Affordable Care Act, which earned the moniker “Obamacare.”
When it passed in 2010, two years after Barack Obama was elected president, Obamacare was met with almost universal derision from Republicans.
It was so bad, in the eyes of the public, that the GOP swept the 2010 election and took control of Congress and the Senate. Creating a stand-off between Obama and the houses - on major bills, that is, not the minor ones - until such time as his term-limit was imposed.
In fact, Obama was able to slide into a second term largely on the merits of the early years of Obamacare. People enjoyed some of the benefits that came from the legislation, including the ability to keep your children on your insurance until they are 26, and the removal of the “pre-existing conditions” clause which caused so many to be denied insurance coverage.
However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Insurance premiums - for private and Obamacare patients - rose in the double or triple percentage range, all-the-while the promise of “if you want to keep your doctor, you can” made by the man himself fell short.
But it was clear to Republicans that there were portions of Obamacare that citizens wanted to keep, specifically the aforementioned children, and keeping insurance companies for denying coverage, outright, if a potential client has a pre-existing condition.
Roughly 20 million people enrolled in Obamacare, despite rising premiums, bringing the total number of uninsured adults down from 18% to just above 10%.
So the rally cry changed from “repeal” to “repeal and replace.”
Well, Republicans got their wish - Trump was elected, so the Senate just... went forward with the plan, passing a budget adjustment resolution in the wee hours of the morning by a vote of 51-48, which starts the Obamacare repeal process, mostly by opening the door to repeal parts of the law which don’t fit the budget model for the upcoming year.
This has caused a divide in the GOP, mostly because the repeal process has started but the “replace” part of the plan still isn’t in place. Many of the substitute plans haven’t been agreed upon, leaving many legislators - including Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy (a doctor) - urging lawmakers to slow down, and creating a rift inside the Republican Party.
In an interview, Trump suggested that the final repeal vote for “Obamacare” and the vote to install it’s replacement would occur ‘concurrently’ - with details of the specific timeline left out.
There’s another rift, which must be addressed by any new healthcare legislation, if government-assisted insurance is to succeed.
That’s the rift between taxpayer-funded insurance for those who cannot afford it privately, and continually rising medical costs - because most hospitals are private businesses, looking to make a buck or two.
For instance, in just one year (2015-2016) the average cost of a family health care plan in America went up 3.4%. They are expected to grow 6.5%, according to Fortune Magazine, in 2017 if a new plan is not put into place.
Americans have seen this type of market reaction from government involvement before. The housing crash after the de-regulation of the mortgage market; increases in costs of living with ever-rising minimum wage levels; the current state of Treasury-backed student loans and their ease of acquisition, as opposed to the benefit of the degree that is borne of them.
The fatal flaw in all of those systems? No ceiling.
The United States, historically, has tried to avoid having too much effect on private markets. And yet, just by nature of being the Feds, and getting involved in these markets without imposing a price ceiling, the money simply rolls in until the bubble bursts.
It’s a perilous time in Washington, D.C. right now. Will Obamacare be repealed by majority Republican houses before a proper replacement is in place?
Then, will the replacement go far enough to protect the taxpayers against yet another government-created bubble?
You will just have to wait and see.
