- Jun 6, 2007
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President Donald Trump offers no leadership on Healthcare he acts like a fumbling idiot on the subject. Now he is back to his mantra that the Republicans are going to offer the American people something better than the ACA (Affordable Care Act). He ran for the Presidency on this platform and after he won and the Republicans had both chambers of Congress the Republicans could not produce any better plan than President Trump changes course and says the Republican replacement plan will be good and the American people rejected the Republican plans because the ACA was better. President Trump is treating the American people like we are stupid on this issue and that is a big mistake.
The core of the healthcare problem in America is what to do with the many Americans that have pre-existing conditions which are expensive to provide health care for. There is only two options to address this problem: make a separate insurance pool for those with pre-existing conditions which presents the challenge of how to come up with the large amount of money to subsidize this pool to make the insurance plans in this pool affordable or two have these Americans with pre-existing conditions buy from the same insurance pools everyone else does and spread out the cost of these sick people to the entirety of the people in these pools to make the insurance affordable. The latter option which is the framework of the Affordable Care Act is by far the best and only economically viable option. The former, the separate pool, idea is not economically viable because many states across America cannot afford to pay for such a pool and the Federal government cannot afford to fund the pools longterm because the cost of these pools would rise too dramatically this class of people the ones with pre-existing conditions most utilize America's healthcare system and thus are the cause for the high rate of increase in America's healthcare bill. The way to improve the ACA has been talked about extensively which is for the federal government to subsidize health insurance plans sold on the exchanges across the country to lessen the cost on these plans from medical claims from enrollees in these plans who have pre-existing conditions. If the Federal government did that than these insurance companies that operate on the exchanges would be able to lower insurance premiums and deductibles and the American people would be much happier with America's healthcare system.
The Federal Government could raise this money in part by doing pharmaceutical industry reform, both political parties have said they want to do it. Republicans have clamored that they are for free market reforms in the Pharmaceutical Industry well than they should support taking down the opaque system of drug pricing in America where the American people are kept in the dark on how the pricing works. The Federal Government should require the industry to publish to the the American consumer it can be through the Pharmacy Benefit Managers website and through the pharmacy retailers website not only the list price of the drugs being sold but also the actual price the pharmaceutical company is charging for their drug and also the amount of the rebate the pharmaceutical company is providing for the drug. Also, make it against the law for pharmaceutical companies to condition the amount of the actual price they charge for a drug and/or the amount of the rebate on exclusivity of the selling of that pharmaceutical company's drug; this will cut down on all the behind the scenes maneuvering and push the pharmaceutical companies to make their standard charge for their drug lower so as to keep their drug competitive. Democrats who have as their hallmark looking out for ordinary working people and middle class families should be running to enact such legislation which will help these constituents. Any knowledgeable responsible American knows passing this type of legislation is readily doable, the question is do the parties have the character to put politics aside and work together on this issue for the betterment of the American people!
President Trump said he wants the Republican Party to be the Party of Healthcare if he causes the repeal of the ACA act he will get it but he won't like the end result. Remember the word "of" is not the same as "for"; the Republican will end up with the reputation of being the party of the healthcare industry - of the Insurance Companies which the ACA requires them to use at least eighty-five percent of the premiums they collect in paying medical claims and not big insurance executives salaries and bonuses; of healthcare providers that will be free from the challenges of having to deal with a large pool of poor and sick people, etc.!
The core of the healthcare problem in America is what to do with the many Americans that have pre-existing conditions which are expensive to provide health care for. There is only two options to address this problem: make a separate insurance pool for those with pre-existing conditions which presents the challenge of how to come up with the large amount of money to subsidize this pool to make the insurance plans in this pool affordable or two have these Americans with pre-existing conditions buy from the same insurance pools everyone else does and spread out the cost of these sick people to the entirety of the people in these pools to make the insurance affordable. The latter option which is the framework of the Affordable Care Act is by far the best and only economically viable option. The former, the separate pool, idea is not economically viable because many states across America cannot afford to pay for such a pool and the Federal government cannot afford to fund the pools longterm because the cost of these pools would rise too dramatically this class of people the ones with pre-existing conditions most utilize America's healthcare system and thus are the cause for the high rate of increase in America's healthcare bill. The way to improve the ACA has been talked about extensively which is for the federal government to subsidize health insurance plans sold on the exchanges across the country to lessen the cost on these plans from medical claims from enrollees in these plans who have pre-existing conditions. If the Federal government did that than these insurance companies that operate on the exchanges would be able to lower insurance premiums and deductibles and the American people would be much happier with America's healthcare system.
The Federal Government could raise this money in part by doing pharmaceutical industry reform, both political parties have said they want to do it. Republicans have clamored that they are for free market reforms in the Pharmaceutical Industry well than they should support taking down the opaque system of drug pricing in America where the American people are kept in the dark on how the pricing works. The Federal Government should require the industry to publish to the the American consumer it can be through the Pharmacy Benefit Managers website and through the pharmacy retailers website not only the list price of the drugs being sold but also the actual price the pharmaceutical company is charging for their drug and also the amount of the rebate the pharmaceutical company is providing for the drug. Also, make it against the law for pharmaceutical companies to condition the amount of the actual price they charge for a drug and/or the amount of the rebate on exclusivity of the selling of that pharmaceutical company's drug; this will cut down on all the behind the scenes maneuvering and push the pharmaceutical companies to make their standard charge for their drug lower so as to keep their drug competitive. Democrats who have as their hallmark looking out for ordinary working people and middle class families should be running to enact such legislation which will help these constituents. Any knowledgeable responsible American knows passing this type of legislation is readily doable, the question is do the parties have the character to put politics aside and work together on this issue for the betterment of the American people!
President Trump said he wants the Republican Party to be the Party of Healthcare if he causes the repeal of the ACA act he will get it but he won't like the end result. Remember the word "of" is not the same as "for"; the Republican will end up with the reputation of being the party of the healthcare industry - of the Insurance Companies which the ACA requires them to use at least eighty-five percent of the premiums they collect in paying medical claims and not big insurance executives salaries and bonuses; of healthcare providers that will be free from the challenges of having to deal with a large pool of poor and sick people, etc.!
