Tag: single-payer
In a weekend interview with The Washington Post, President-elect Donald Trump offered some surprising news, declaring he is nearly finished with his plan to replace President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Trump, who is less than a week away from beginning his four-year presidential term, did not reveal the specifics of his health care replacement but vowed his plan would “have insurance for everybody.”
Trump continued, “There was a philosophy in some circle s that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”
While Trump did not elaborate on the details of his plan, he did reveal that it’s formulated down the to the “final strokes.” He said he is waiting for his secretary of health and human services, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), to be confirmed before he releases the specifics.
While he was tight-lipped about most aspects of his plan, which will replace most aspects of Obamacare, he did make his intentions to target pharmaceutical companies well known. He revealed that drug companies will be forced to negotiate on Medicare and Medicaid prices. Trump also declared his plan will have lower deductibles because he plans to fight pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. “They’re politically protected, but not anymore,” he said
In developing his replacement plan, Trump acknowledged that he paid attention to critics who say that repealing the Affordable Care Act would put coverage at risk for more than 20 million Americans covered under the law’s insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion.
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump said. “It’ll be another plan. But they’ll be beautifully covered. I don’t want single-payer. What I do want is to be able to take care of people” He also insisted that Americans “can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.”
Last week, Congress took a big step toward dismantling the ACA by approving a budget resolution that would begin repealing the healthcare law. According to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the budget vote gives Congress “the tools we need for a step-by-step approach to fix these problems and put Americans back in control of their health care.”
While Trump seems all but ready to reveal and implement his replacement plan, there will likely be months of debate and Congressional infighting before the law is passed. However, Trump has warned Congress that he will use the power of his presidency (and social media) to let the American people know that Washington politicians are delaying the implementation of his replacement plan. He noted, “The Congress can’t get cold feet because the people will not let that happen.”
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