Begging The Arsonists To Put Out The Fire

Need a surgeon? Would you consult Dr, Jack the Ripper? Would you hire Godzilla for your next construction project? And yet, we have entrusted our healthcare system to Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Donald Trump. What could go wrong?

The U.S. Senate is about to return from their latest vacation. The push is on. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is determined to get his legislation, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA), passed before their next vacation, the August recess. Faster legislation, but not necessarily good legislation.

Health insurance is regulated on both the federal and state level. Our elected officials in Washington and Columbus have been very busy. Some of their focus has been on tax cuts, election nullification, and sabotage. And every once in a while, when they have nothing better to do, they put some effort towards solving problems.

A key element of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is the Individual Mandate, the requirement to purchase insurance. This blog and numerous other published articles have noted that the Individual Mandate traces its roots to the conservative Heritage Foundation over twenty-five years ago. The logic is simple – If we are going to offer health insurance to all Americans and cover preexisting conditions, we must have everyone participate.

You can’t fund a healthcare system if only the sick and the responsible are participating.

President Trump and Congress are actively sabotaging the system. As previously discussed, Mr. Trump’s first Executive Order directed federal agencies to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from or delay the implementation of the Act…” And with that the IRS stopped holding tax returns that didn’t include proof of insurance coverage. Enforcement became optional. But that isn’t enough for Congress.

The New York Times recently reported that a bill is moving through Congress that would prevent the IRS from enforcing the Individual Mandate. Why leave anything to chance? With the replacement bill floundering and Obamacare, by default, looking better every day, it is important to the Republicans to harm PPACA any way they can. Every healthy person that chooses to not purchase coverage is a future rate increase for everyone else.

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I’ve left the message on our system. Every comment on this blog is appreciated. He had given his response a lot of time and thought, so much that he wasn’t able to call my office until 10:30 on a Saturday night. He was careful to mask his number to evade the caller ID but, oddly enough, forgot to leave his name. My reader wanted me to know how much he respected President Trump and that my opinion wasn’t appreciated, though he didn’t use those exact words.

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com