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Posted with permission.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trumps-political-antics-push-consumers-health-care-costs-higher?cid=sm_fb_maddow
Trumps political antics push consumers health care costs higher
08/10/17 11:00 AM
By Steve Benen
At a press briefing a few weeks ago, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said theres all kinds of evidence that the Affordable Care Act is facing a collapse. To prove her point, Donald Trumps principal spokesperson told reporters, Premiums continue to skyrocket.
And while its true that many consumers are having to pay more for coverage, what Team Trump doesnt like to talk about is its role in creating the problem the president and his aides like to complain about. The Associated Press reported this morning:
The analysis released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that mixed signals from President Donald Trump have created uncertainty far outside the norm, leading insurers to seek higher premium increases for 2018 than would otherwise have been the case.
In fairness, there are multiple factors that contribute to premium increases which were, of course, common long before Obamacare became the law of the land but as the APs report explained, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that mixed signals from the Trump administration have clearly made matters worse.
The vast majority of companies in states with detailed rate filings have included some language around the uncertainty, so it is likely that more companies will revise their premiums to reflect uncertainty in the absence of clear answers from Congress or the administration, the report said.
The result is what some on the left have begun calling a Trump Tax on consumers: Americans are being forced to pay more for health care insurance as a direct result of the White Houses political tactics.
As we discussed in May, at the heart of the problem are cost-sharing reductions a key component of the Affordable Care Act, which helps cover middle-class consumers out-of-pocket costs that Trump has decided to turn into a political weapon. The fact that the Republican president has not yet followed through on his threats to scrap CSRs, in practice, doesnt matter: the threat itself creates uncertainty that forces Americans to pay more.
The White House has been reminded of this repeatedly. Americas Health Insurance Plans said in no uncertain terms that Trumps tactics surrounding CSRs are the single most destabilizing factor in the individual market, and millions of Americans could soon feel the impact of fewer choices, higher costs, and reduced access to care.
Its relatively straightforward: when private insurers dont know about the fate of existing federal subsidies, they need to protect themselves against potential future losses imposed by Republicans. Its Business 101.
And so, by playing games, Trump and his GOP allies are effectively forcing insurance companies to start charging consumers more today because they dont know what the White House and Congress will do tomorrow.
The president, in other words, is imposing a political surcharge on the cost of health coverage for no reason. By threatening to make things worse, Trump and allies are already making things worse.
BigmanPigman
(51,627 posts)Money makes the murderous, greedy, corrupt GOP bastards smile with joy as they rape, pillage and burn the poor and weak. I am sick but they are far sicker. The only remedy is to eliminate their party.
I am not a history buff but the two parties (once three major parties) have changed dramatically many time since our founding fathers and it is time for a sweeping change again. Our country can't survive with this as an option during our next, or any, future election.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)October should be damn interesting for those who will have to resign up for coverage. All by design.
dalton99a
(81,570 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)by this BullCrap coming out of the GOP. This has been by design. They hate working and people of limited financial means. Romney called them the 47% which is the true feeling of the GOP.