 |
| Larry Downing/Reuters |
Prohibitive costs placed coverage outside the reach of everyday Americans, including countless with preexisting conditions.
resident Trump’s recent executive order laying out his “America-First Healthcare Plan” makes clear his continued commitment to the long-standing, bipartisan consensus that we should protect people with preexisting conditions. Unfortunately, the previous administration’s attempt to make good on that consensus — Obamacare — has failed to deliver on its promises.
Contrary to the prevailing media narrative, federal health insurance enrollment protections for preexisting conditions long predate Obamacare. Bipartisan legislation passed nearly 25 years ago protects people with preexisting conditions and prior health coverage from having to wait for their condition to be covered when they move to a new job. These protections apply to the 180 million Americans with job-based coverage, who represent roughly 90 percent of everyone with private health coverage.
Obamacare attempted to deliver additional protections for people with preexisting conditions in need of health-insurance coverage. The reality is, however, the law’s prohibitive costs placed coverage outside the reach of everyday Americans, including countless with preexisting conditions.
After premiums doubled and even tripled in some states once Obamacare regulations took effect, individual-market coverage became unaffordable and unusable for millions of middle-class and self-employed Americans earning too much to qualify for subsidies. A 60-year-old couple living in Hannibal, Missouri, who earn $70,000 a year faces a $37,000 annual premium for the lowest-cost silver plan — over half their income — and that’s before a staggering $12,000 deductible. For them, there are no protections if they have a preexisting condition. Sadly, Obamacare has failed to protect them.
It’s time the national debate over Obamacare finally confronts this reality. One can support maintaining formal preexisting protections in the individual market — as President Trump has done repeatedly, and has done again in his recent executive order — while honestly confronting the law’s poor track record in making those protections meaningful for real people.READ THE REST HERE
If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.
No comments:
Post a Comment