The transition team’s point man on Social Security is a longtime advocate of privatization, and all indications are that the incoming administration is getting ready to kill Medicare, replacing it with vouchers that can be applied to the purchase of private insurance. Oh, and it’s also likely to raise the age of Medicare eligibility.
So it’s important not to let this bait-and-switch happen before the public realizes what’s going on.
.. First, the attack on Medicare will be one of the most blatant violations of a campaign promise in history.
.. since 2010 Medicare outlays per beneficiary have risen only 1.4 percent a year, less than the inflation rate. This success is one main reason long-term budget projections have dramatically improved.
Trump talks Obamacare, Clinton concession call in first on-air interview since election
In a preview clip of the CBS’s “60 Minutes” interview to air Sunday, Trump tells Lesley Stahl that he intends to include ACA provisions that cover those with pre-existing conditions and adult children who stay on their parents’ plans until age 26 in his administration’s healthcare plan.
“It happens to be one of the strongest assets,” Trump said. “Also with the children living with their parents for an extended period, we’re going to very much try to keep that in. [It] adds cost, but it’s very much something we’re going to try and keep.”
Donald Trump is about to face a rude awakening over Obamacare
But at the end of the day, once you decide that everyone, regardless of age or medical condition, should be able to buy health insurance at an affordable price, you have essentially bought into the idea that young and healthy people have an obligation to subsidize the older and sicker people in some fashion. And once you do that, it’s sort of inevitable you end up where every health reform plan has ended up since the days of Richard Nixon. You end up with some variation on Obamacare.
.. There are no easy solutions here, no free lunches. You can’t have all the good parts of an unregulated insurance market (freedom to buy what you want, when you want, with market pricing) without the bad parts (steadily rising premiums and insurance that is unaffordable for people who are old and sick).
Trump’s Health Plan: Pay Your Own Medical Bills Using Money You Saved
The candidate called a special “meeting” to discuss the future of medicine. Here’s how that went.
.. The candidate has been hostile toward the current health-care system and toward Hillary Clinton’s proposals, but has offered almost nothing in the way of solutions. Perhaps today was the day for a plan.
.. When everyone pays for their own health care individually, they lose collective purchasing power and the pharmaceutical companies and hospital systems can charge whatever they want, offering care to only those who can afford high costs.