By now, I’m sure you all have heard about President Trump’s new health care reform dubbed “Trumpcare.” The program, more formally known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA), was just passed by the House of Representatives on May 4th. However, it has yet to be viewed and voted on by the Senate, leaving many Americans anxious where their health coverage resides.
Why are they so worried? It all boils down to the regulations in the AHCA that discuss the eligibility of American citizens. Those who have had coverage under Obamacare are now unsure whether their current coverage will still be in effect if Trumpcare is passed, especially due to the extensive list of pre-existing conditions people have seen floating around on the internet. Everyone is concerned about how these conditions now affect their access to the healthcare they use, if at all.
In actuality, Trumpcare does require all citizens to be covered regardless of their pre-existing conditions. The AHCA actually mandates all health insurance providers to cover their members regardless of these pre-existing conditions. However, the coverage itself is subject to change if Trumpcare is approved.
So, how will your coverage change exactly?
Coverage under Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) was subject to no denial regardless of a pre-existing condition, but in Trumpcare, this isn’t the case. There are certain “loopholes” that affect individuals with pre-existing conditions, with one being the ability to raise premiums for individuals that mistakenly allow their insurance to lapse and must re-apply.
At this point, you’re probably asking yourself: “If your insurance coverage still exists under Trumpcare, then why is everyone freaking out?”
I’m here to tell you that there is A LOT more wrong in this bill than the fear of losing coverage.
Trump’s AHCA bill imposes severe premium increases to combat the “coverage for all” clause that they had to keep in the bill. This is because under Obamacare, which required all eligible citizens to obtain health insurance, healthy individuals with health insurance balanced the cost of coverage for sick individuals. Without this requirement, there is a disproportionate number of sick to healthy individuals and little money to fund their expenses. Therefore, the burden falls into the hands of those who do have health insurance. This is probably also why Trumpcare penalizes those who either forget and re-apply or now choose to apply for health insurance with increased premiums. The premium increase can also be detrimental to employees that rely on their employers to provide an affordable health care plan. Without the requirement to have health insurance, along with soaring premiums, employers no longer have an incentive to have health insurance bundles for their employees, forcing them to obtain their insurance individually at a more expensive cost.
Because the number of individuals that need health insurance are seniors, the burden of heavy premiums also falls on them. With the rising costs of treating seniors with a variety of ailments, the costs to obtain insurance can be extremely harmful if they are retired and have no other source of income, resulting in these seniors dropping their insurance policies. Therefore, many seniors will be out of insurance and will be unable to afford their current healthcare out of pocket.
Trumpcare even allows insurance agencies a “bailout.” This means they are permitted to subsidize their clients if needed.
The AHCA could possibly take three years to enact, since the breakdown of the ACA will affect many individuals, and therefore prompt instability in the healthcare system. This uncertainty can cause many insurance companies to retract their services, fearing that the unstable program might cost them some serious money. As a result, individuals will then have a smaller number of companies to choose from and ultimately increased premiums.
As the bill is making its way from House to Senate, tensions are rising with obvious reasons. Trumpcare, though not necessarily cutting off funding for pre-existing conditions, still creates a cohort of issues that need to be resolved before the plan can be in effect. Unfortunately, that might be an issue in and of itself, since President Trump isn’t even that familiar with his own bill. At least he has some help from economic advisors that I sincerely hope he uses.
As for the plan itself? Nobody can be sure it will work. The only upside I can leave you with is that if the plan fails (and I truly hope not for the sake of our country and the people in it), it will become a political strategy democrats can use, come election time, to undermine the “progress” Republicans think they are currently making.
For now though, just as all of America has been doing since Trump has been elected, try putting at least an ounce of trust into the process in the hopes that this does turn out right. Because I don’t know about you, but I’d rather deal with Trump being right than risking the livelihoods and the health of our nation because of a bill that underestimated just how important health care really is.
