One Angry American Rages: "Obama Lied, My 4th Health Plan Just Died"

Authored by Michelle Malkin via Townhall.com,

Cue the funeral bagpipes. My fourth health insurance plan is dead.

Two weeks ago, my husband and I received yet another cancellation notice for our private, individual health insurance coverage. It"s our fourth Obamacare-induced obituary in four years.

Our first death notice, from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, arrived in the fall of 2013.

The insurer informed us that because of "changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA)," our plan no longer met the federal government"s requirements.

Never mind our needs and desires as consumers who were quite satisfied with a high-deductible PPO that included a wide network of doctors for ourselves and our two children.

Our second death knell, from Rocky Mountain Health Plans, tolled in August 2015.

 That notice signaled the end of a plan we didn"t want in the first place that didn"t cover our kids" dental care and wasn"t accepted at our local urgent care clinic. The insurer pulled out of the individual market in all but one county in Colorado, following the complete withdrawal from that sector by Humana and UnitedHealthcare.

Our third "notice of plan discontinuation," again from Anthem, informed us that the insurer would "no longer offer your current health plan in the State of Colorado" in August 2016.

With fewer and fewer choices as know-it-all Obamacare bureaucrats decimated the individual market here and across the country, we enrolled in a high-deductible Bronze HSA EPO (Health Savings Account Exclusive Provider Organization) offered by Minneapolis-based startup, Bright Health.

Now, here we are barely a year later: Deja screwed times four. Our current plan will be discontinued on Jan. 1, 2018.

"But don"t worry," Bright Health"s eulogy writer chirped, "we have similar plans to address your needs."

Riiiiight. Where have I heard those pie-in-the-sky promises before? Oh, yeah. Straight out of the socialized medicine Trojan horse"s mouth. "If you like your doctor," President Obama promised, "you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you"ll be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what."

Is pathological lying covered under the Affordable Care Act?

Speaking of Affordable Care Act whoppers, so much for "affordable." Our current deductible is $6,550 per person; $13,100 for our family of four. Assuming we can find a new plan at the bottom of the individual market barrel, our current monthly premium, $944.86, will rise to more than $1,300 a month.

"What"s taking place is a market correction; the free market is at work," says Colorado"s state insurance commissioner, Marguerite Salazar. "(T)his could be an indication that there were too many options for the market to support."

This presumptuous central planner called federal intervention to eliminate "too many" options for consumers the free market at work. Yes, friends, the Rocky Mountain High is real.

This isn"t a "market correction." It"s a government catastrophe. Premiums for individual health plans in Virginia are set to skyrocket nearly 60 percent in 2018. In New Hampshire, those rates will rise 52 percent. In South Carolina, individual market consumers will face an average 31.3 percent hike. In Tennessee, they"ll see rates jump between 20-40 percent.

Private, flexible PPOs for self-sufficient, self-employed people are vanishing by design. The social-engineered future -- healthy, full-paying consumers being herded into government-run Obamacare exchanges and severely regulated regional HMOs -- is a bipartisan big government health bureaucracy"s dream come true.

These choice-wreckers had the arrogant audacity to denigrate our pre-Obamacare plans as "substandard" (Obama), "crappy" (MSNBC big mouth Ed Schultz) and "junk policies" (Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa). When I first called attention to the cancellation notice tsunami in 2013, liberal Mother Jones magazine sneered that the phenomenon was "phony." And they"re still denying the Obamacare death spiral. Liberal Vox Media recently called the crisis "a lie."

I don"t have enough four-letter words for these propagandists. There are an estimated 450,000 consumers like us in Colorado and 17 million of us nationwide -- small-business owners, independent contractors and others who don"t get their plans through group coverage, big companies or government employers. The costs, headaches and disruption in our lives caused by Obamacare"s meddling meddlers are real and massive.

But we"re puzzles to corporate media journalists who"ve never had to meet a payroll and don"t even know what is the individual market.

We"re invisible to late-night TV clowns who get their Obamacare-at-all-costs talking points from Chuck Schumer.

We"re pariahs to social justice health care activists and Democrats who want us to just shut up and subsidize everyone else"s insurance.

And we"re expendables to establishment Republicans who hoovered up campaign donations on the empty promise to repeal Obamacare -- and now consider amnesty for immigrants here illegally and gun control higher legislative priorities than keeping their damned word.

We"re the canaries in the Obamacare coal mine. Ignore us at your peril, America. You"re next.

Visualizing How Americans Get Healthcare Coverage

With Obamacare firmly in the crosshairs of Republican lawmakers, the debate around U.S. healthcare is at a fever pitch.

While there is no shortage of opinions on the best route forward, Visual Capitalist"s Jeff Desjardins points out that the timeliness of the debate also gives us an interesting chance to dive into some of the numbers around healthcare – namely how people even get coverage in the first place.

HOW AMERICANS GET HEALTHCARE

The following infographic shows a breakdown of how Americans get healthcare coverage, based on information from Census Bureau’s surveys.

Put together by Axios, it shows the proportion of Americans getting coverage from employers, Medicaid, Medicare, non-group policies, and other public sources. The graphic also includes the 9% of the population that is uninsured, as well.

The following definitions for each category above come from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit that uses the Census Bureau’s data to put together comprehensive estimates on healthcare in the country:

Employer-Based: Includes those covered by employer-sponsored coverage either through their own job or as a dependent in the same household.

Medicaid: Includes those covered by Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and those who have both Medicaid and another type of coverage, such as dual eligibles who are also covered by Medicare.

Medicare: Includes those covered by Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and those who have Medicare and another type of non-Medicaid coverage where Medicare is the primary payer. Excludes those with Medicare Part A coverage only and those covered by Medicare and Medicaid (dual eligibles).

Other Public: Includes those covered under the military or Veterans Administration.

Non-Group: Includes individuals and families that purchased or are covered as a dependent by non-group insurance.

Uninsured: Includes those without health insurance and those who have coverage under the Indian Health Service only.

HEALTHCARE MIX BY STATE

Here’s another look at how Americans get healthcare coverage on a state-by-state basis.

This time the graphic comes from Overflow Data and it simply shows the percent of buyers in each state that receive health coverage from public sources:

Oddly, the state that gets the highest proportion of public health coverage (New Mexico, 46.6%) is kitty-corner to the state with the lowest proportion of public health coverage (Utah, 21.3%).

WHY THE DEBATE IS PARAMOUNT

If you ask some people what is going on with U.S. healthcare, they will tell you that things are going “sideways” – that costs are going up, but care is not improving anywhere near the same pace.

Here’s a graphic we published last year from Max Roser that puts this sentiment in perspective:

It’s fair to say that care has been going sideways in the U.S. for some time, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

So, what needs to be done to fix the problem?

Federal Judge Blocks "Anticompetitive" Anthem Aquisition Of Cigna

Moments ago a federal judge blocked health insurer Anthem from acquiring rival Cigna, the second court ruling in recent weeks to deal a decisive blow to health insurers seeking consolidation as a cure to the substantially higher operating costs plaguing the industry as a result of Obamacare.  The ruling echoed a decision by a different judge last month who blocked Aetna’s plans to take over Humana.  Though the two proposed insurer combinations were different in many ways, both judges found that merging top industry rivals threatened higher prices without the necessary patient benefits to offset those higher costs.  Per the Wall Street Journal:

The decision, by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, said the proposed $48 billion deal violated federal antitrust law because it would create an unacceptable reduction in the number of companies that can serve large national employers that insure their workers.

Of course, as the Journal notes, while the decision could be challenged by Aetna, rising tensions between the two companies make an appeal unlikely. 

While Aetna is considering a possible appeal in its case, Wednesday’s ruling almost certainly kills the Anthem-Cigna transaction, as discord between the companies has grown considerably since they announced their deal in July 2015.

At the deal’s inception, the insurers said their marriage would create a diversified, innovative and more efficient health insurer. But the two sides’ relationship soured over time as they clashed over leadership styles and visions for the future.

The companies squabbled during the Justice Department’s review of the transaction and eventually accused each other of violating the merger agreement.

As we noted last summer, several massive health insurers were forced to pull out of Obamacare exchanges all around the country after losing $100"s of millions of dollars serving unprofitable markets in 2016.  Aetna even warned that failure to close proposed mega-mergers in the industry would only result in further withdrawals and less customer options. 

In a July 5 letter to the Justice Department, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Aetna said that if the Humana deal drew a legal challenge, “instead of expanding to 20 states next year, we would reduce our presence to no more than 10 states.” In addition, the letter, signed by Aetna Chief Executive Mark T. Bertolini, said the insurer believed “it is very likely that we would need to leave the public exchange business entirely and plan for additional business efficiencies should our deal ultimately be blocked.”

Sure enough, one month later, Aetna executed on its warning with a dramatic reduction of its Obamacare offerings. It may only escalate from there.

The company said in the letter that an antitrust suit or a successful prevention of its deal would create financial strains that would force it to pull back from the exchanges, where it was losing money. “Although we remain supportive of the Administration’s efforts to expand coverage, we must also face market realities. Our customers expect us to keep their insurance products affordable and continually improving, and our shareholders expect that we will generate a market return on invested capital for them,” the letter said.

While it is undisputed that contrary to expectations, Obamacare has ended up being a far greater drain on profits than insurance providers had expected - on August 2, Aetna disclosed that its ACA plans had lost approximately $200 million in the second quarter of 2016 and were expected to lose more than $300 million this year - this type of "bargaining" with the government is disturbing, as it suggests a quid-pro-quo arrangement with the government is not only possible but expected when making corporate decisions.

The two maps below prove the point above beautifully by illustrating the epic collapse of Obamacare coverage in just 1 year.  A collapse that has left a stunning number of people across the country with only 1 option for health insurance.  Meanwhile, healthcare shoppers in Pinal County, Arizona will actually be left with no options in 2017 as all carriers have abandoned service there. (charts per the New York Times)

2016 healthcare insurance carriers by county:

2017 healthcare insurance carriers by county:

Of course, if Republicans have their way then the entire original premise of this merger may be rendered moot in a few months anyway.

400,000 Fewer Americans Enrolled In Obamacare For 2017

Despite The Democrats decrying the Trump administration for its efforts to repeal and replace President Obama"s Affordable Care Act, it seems around 400,000 fewer Americans decided for themselves that Obamacare wasn"t for them in 2017.

As Axios reports, Obamacare enrollment for this year appears to have ended slightly down from last year, according to enrollment numbers released this afternoon by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The agency said about 9.2 million people signed up in the 39 states that use the federal HealthCare.gov website by Jan. 31.

While that"s not a total enrollment figure, 9.6 million people signed up through that website at the end of last year"s open enrollment.

It"s the first indication that the Trump administration"s opposition to the law, and its decision to pull TV advertising, may have had an impact, since the pace of enrollment had been ahead of last year"s until mid-January.

For context:

• New customers in 2017: 3 million


• New customers in 2016: 4 million

Just before the numbers were released, an HHS spokesman from the Trump team released a statement declaring that "Obamacare has failed the American people, with one broken promise after another."

“As noted in the report today from [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services], premiums in the ACA marketplace have increased 25 percent while the number of insurers has declined 28 percent over the past year,” he added.

“We look forward to providing relief to those who are being harmed by the status quo and pursuing patient-centered solutions that will work for the American people.”

As The Hill adds, The Trump administration did not release enrollment numbers for all 50 states, so it is not clear how the nationwide signup numbers compare to the Obama administration’s target of 13.8 million signups across all 50 states. The administration said it would release more information on nationwide enrollment in March.

Democrats pointed to a drop-off in signups at the end of the enrollment period as evidence that the Trump administration"s cancelation of ads hurt sign-ups.

• Federal marketplace signups, Jan. 15-31, 2017: 376,260


• Federal marketplace signups, Jan. 24-31, 2016: 686,708

So what the Democrats are saying is that without spending millions to advertize the benefits of Obamacare - after years of discussion and explanation - notably fewer people are interested in it, or believe they need it (or are willing to spend money on it).

Aetna's Takeover Of Humana Blocked As Anticompetitive

Back in August, we reported of a fascinating case of crony capitalism, whereby Aetna gave the DOJ a not too subtle ultimatum which boiled down to the following: "If the Humana deal is blocked, we exit Obamacare."

Well, be careful what you wish for, because six months later, and with Obamacare well on its way out, moments ago a US federal judge blocked Aetna"s $37 billion deal to buy rival insurer Humana, thwarting one of two large mergers that would reshape the U.S. health-care landscape. The judge"s ruling, which was filed in Federal court in Washington, said the deal would be "anticompetitive"adding that the deal  would have hurt competition among insurers.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled the Justice Department had proven its case that the merger would unlawfully threaten competition.

The judge said the transaction could mean higher prices and reduced services for seniors who purchase the private Medicare plans known as Medicare Advantage. He also said the merger would harm competition on public insurance exchanges in parts of Florida.  With the deal now scrapped, Aetna will owe Humana a $1 billion breakup fee.

Of course, with Obamacare on its way out, it would not be a surprise if the insurance companies would not have quietly preferred that the deal was blocked. For now, however, the shareholders of Aetna are less than excited, sending the stock of the company nearly 3% lower, while Humana was rebounded to almost unchanged after plunging as much as 7% in kneejerk reation.

Why Obamacare's "20 Million" Number Is Fake

Submitted by Genevieve Wood via DailySignal.com,

Liberals are notorious for caring about “groups” of people, but when it gets down to individual persons, not so much. You’re about to see this play out in spades as Democrats cry crocodile tears over the coming repeal of Obamacare.

You hear it over and over again: “This will be catastrophic for the 20 million people who were previously uninsured but now have coverage! You can’t take away their health care!”

First of all, no one is talking about doing that. Any repeal legislation will have a transition period for those who got coverage through Obamacare to move to new plans. And second, they will have more choices and better options. Win. Win.

But liberals would rather focus on quantity, how many millions we’ve given something to, versus quality, what does that “gift” mean for individual people.

The Obama administration claims 20 million more Americans today have health care due to Obamacare. The reality is that when you look at the actual net gains over the past two years since the program was fully implemented, the number is 14 million, and of that, 11.8 million (84 percent) were people given the “gift” of Medicaid.

And new research shows that even fewer people will be left without insurance after the repeal of Obamacare. Numbers are still being crunched, but between statistics released by the Congressional Budget Office and one of the infamous architects of Obamacare, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Jonathan Gruber, it’s estimated that anywhere from 2 to 7 million people now on Medicaid would have qualified for the program even without Obamacare.

That further discredits the administration’s claim of 20 million more Americans having health insurance because of Obamacare.

Multiple studies have also shown that even those who are uninsured often have better outcomes than those with Medicaid. A University of Virginia study found that for eight different surgical procedures, Medicaid patients were more likely to die than privately insured or uninsured patients. They were also more likely to suffer complications.

And it is important to note that this study focused on procedures done from 2003-2007, prior to the geniuses in Washington deciding it was a good idea to put even more people on the already overburdened Medicaid system.

Additionally, despite what proponents of the law promised, there is little evidence to show that the use of emergency rooms, which have a higher level of medical errors, has decreased due to Obamacare.

Then there is this reality: While Obamacare has handed out millions of new Medicaid cards, that does not mean the recipients now have quality health care. In fact, it doesn’t ensure they have health care at all. That’s because increasing numbers of doctors aren’t accepting Medicaid.

As a Louisiana woman told The New York Times, “My Medicaid card is useless for me right now. It’s a useless piece of plastic. I can’t find an orthopedic surgeon or a pain management doctor who will accept Medicaid.”

Keep that in mind every time liberal Democratic senators pull out the Kleenex boxes bemoaning the fact Republicans are the ones trying to take people’s health care away.

Speaking of which, a much underreported fact of Obamacare is how many truly needy and disabled Americans are NOT getting the services they need because of the expansion of Medicaid for able-bodied adults (aka healthy) of prime working age, 19-54.

So while the left talks about all the new people Obamacare is helping, it neglects to mention that over half a million disabled people, from those with developmental disabilities to traumatic brain injuries, are on waiting lists for care.

And many of them are on waiting lists because Obamacare gives states more money to enroll able-bodied adults than it does to take care of disabled children and adults who qualified for Medicaid prior to Obamacare.

If you think that doesn’t have a real-world perverse impact, note this. Since Arkansas expanded its Medicaid program under Obamacare, it’s rolls have grown by 25 percent. During that same time, 79 people on the Medicaid waiting list who suffered from developmental disabilities have died. I would encourage you to read my former Heritage Foundation colleague Chris Jacob’s full piece on this.

Finally, it’s not just those enrolled in Medicaid that are finding fewer health care provider options. For people who now have health plans through the Obamacare exchanges, new Heritage Foundation research shows that this year, in 70 percent of counties across the country, those consumers will have only one or two insurers to choose from.

Add to that the millions of people who lost the doctors and health plans they liked and are now paying higher premiums for less coverage, and you can see that quality health care and anything resembling “choice” has quickly disappeared for an increasing number of Americans due to Obamacare.

So the next time a defender of Obamacare tries to take the moral high ground about the millions of people the law has helped, ask them to define what “help” looks like.

Two More Major Problems For Social Security & Medicare

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Not too long ago my step-dad had to spend a few days in intensive care. Pretty scary stuff.

He had just about every nasty symptom imaginable, from constant vomiting to dizziness to ultra-high fever, but the doctors couldn’t figure out why.

Fortunately his condition improved enough that he was released from the hospital, and now he’s on the mend.

Now, my step-dad is a Medicare patient. But he just found out that he’s been unceremoniously dropped by his Primary Care doctor.

Apparently his physician dropped all of her Medicare patients in one giant culling.

It turns out that physicians across the country have been firing Medicare patients; and according to a late 2015 study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 21% of physicians are not taking new Medicare patients.

Much of this trend is based on stiff penalties and financial disincentives from the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and 2015’s Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization (MACRA) Act.

MACRA in particular is completely mystifying.

The law created a whopping 2,400 pages of regulations that Medicare physicians are expected to know and follow.

Many of the rules are debilitating.

For instance, MACRA changed how physicians can be reimbursed for their Medicare patients by establishing a bizarre set of standards to determine if a physician is providing “value”.

As an example, if a patient ends up in the emergency room, his or her physician can incur a steep penalty.

This explains why my step-dad was dropped by his doctor.

The healthcare system has been broken to the point that physicians now have a greater incentive to fire their Medicare patients than to treat them.

One Florida-based physician summed up the situation like this:

“I have decided to opt-out of Medicare, acknowledging that I can no longer play a game that is rigged against me; one that I can never win because of constantly changing rules, and one where the stakes include fines and even potential jail time.”

The irony is that all these new laws and regulations were designed to “save” Medicare.

As we’ve discussed many times before, both Medicare and Social Security are dramatically underfunded and rapidly running out of cash.

Medicare is the worst off between the two; MACRA and Obamacare were supposed to create hundreds of billions of dollars in cost savings.

It’s clear now that this cost savings comes at the expense of physicians… and the result is a rising trend in Medicare patients being dropped.

But even with the cost savings, the Congressional Budget Office projects that Medicare will become completely INSOLVENT by 2026.

As I write this letter, Congress is already taking steps to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

If they finish the job, all the supposed cost savings will be eliminated, and Medicare’s projected insolvency date will be accelerated to 2021.

So the government must either keep legislation that isn’t working and have Medicare run out of money in 2026… or repeal the legislation and have Medicare run out of money in 2021.

Either way, Medicare is toast.

Oh, and bailing out Medicare isn’t an option either.

They would need TRILLIONS of dollars to fully fund Medicare, which is just about impossible for a government that loses hundreds of billions each year and already has a $20 trillion debt.

I’m not suggesting they’ll let Medicare go bust.

More than likely they’ll just come up with some band-aid fix that has terrible consequences.

For example, they could bail out Medicare by stealing from Social Security.

Bear in mind that Social Security is a total mess.

Back in the 1960s there were nearly 6.5 active workers paying into the system for every Social Security recipient.

Today that worker-to-beneficiary ratio has fallen by nearly half.

There simply aren’t enough workers paying into the system to support the swelling number of retirees.

That’s why Social Security is terminally underfunded.

And stealing from its trust funds to support Medicare would merely accelerate the demise of Social Security.

Again, there are no good options to save these programs.

But you can easily take charge of your own health and retirement, and there are plenty of solutions available.

Sure, if Social Security and Medicare are still around when it comes time for you to collect, great.

But you’ll be a LOT more secure, for example, if you set up a robust, flexible retirement structure like a solo 401(k) or self-directed IRA.

These allow you to contribute MUCH more money to your retirement, cut costs, and invest in a variety of asset classes that could produce superior returns.

Even just a 1% improvement in your net returns could boost your retirement savings by hundreds of thousands of dollars when compounded over 20-40 years.

A well-structured retirement plan could even own something like an e-commerce business, where not only the profits, but even the investment returns on those profits, would accumulate tax-free towards your retirement.

There are better options in healthcare as well.

Clearly no insurance plan can substitute for healthy food, good choices, and plenty of exercise.

But it’s amazing how much cheaper high quality care and medication can be if you expand your thinking overseas.

Countries like Canada, Mexico, Thailand, India, etc. are renowned for medical tourism.

Whatever treatment you require, from cancer to fertility, top-tier facilities are available abroad at a fraction of the price, and you can actually be treated like a respected human being.

And the cost savings in treatment is often vastly higher than any travel costs in getting there.

(You’d think Medicare would encourage going abroad for treatment…)

Social Security and Medicare are both finished. The numbers don’t lie, and even the annual trustee reports tell us that they’re pitifully underfunded.

But the good news is you don’t need the government to retire and be healthy.

There are plenty of solutions available to take back control for yourself. It just requires a little bit of education and the will to act.

Do you have a Plan B?

Obamacare's Death Throes

Authored by Stephen Lendman,

On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law.

It’s a healthcare rationing scheme to enrich insurers, drug companies and large hospital chains in lieu of the only equitable system - universal coverage, everyone in, no one left out, no gimmicks and schemes the way Obamacare was crafted.

Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) proposes a “Beyond the Affordable Care Act: A Physicians’ Proposal for Single-Payer Care Reform.”

It’s a work in progress, to be published when completed. An abstract said the following:

“Even after full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), tens of millions of Americans will remain uninsured or only partially insured, and costs will continue to rise faster than the background inflation rate.” 

“We propose to replace the ACA with a publicly financed National Health Program (NHP) that would fully cover medical care for all Americans, while lowering costs by eliminating the profit-driven private insurance industry with its massive overhead.”  

“Hospitals, nursing homes, and other provider facilities would be nonprofit, and paid global operating budgets rather than fees for each service.” 

“Physicians could opt to be paid on a fee-for-service basis, but with fees adjusted to better reward primary care providers, or by salaries in facilities paid by global budgets.”  

“The initial increase in government costs would be offset by savings in premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and the rate of medical inflation would slow, freeing up resources for unmet medical and public health needs.”

Obamacare was a failed experiment. Sharply increasing costs make it unaffordable for millions, leaving them woefully underinsured or for many without coverage because it’s too expensive to buy.

It costs double or more what consumers in other developed countries pay. Young healthy Americans aren’t enrolling in state insurance exchanges in enough numbers to keep many of them viable. Signups are less than half of forecasted numbers. For everyone joining, two others aren’t.

Insurers in some areas are abandoning Obamacare, others hemorrhaging cash because of rising costs, low exchange enrollments (especially among valued young healthy adults), and failing Obamacare co-ops.

Choice is disappearing. In many parts of the country, Obamacare enrollees and new customers have one provider, not several among which to choose what’s best for them at the lowest cost.

Obamacare was designed for profit-making, not putting patient needs first. Replacing it with universal coverage is vitally needed - excluding middlemen insurers increasing costs while providing no care.

That’s not what Trump and congressional Republicans have in mind. It’s unclear what they intend other than ideas Trump proposed nearly a year ago.

An earlier article discussed his seven-point industry-enriching plan, an edited version below.

1. Replacing Obamacare with greater predatory marketplace medicine than already.

He’s right, saying no one should be forced to buy insurance they don’t want - one of Obamacare’s many deplorable features.

2. He’s unaware of existing law, saying he’ll change things to let insurers sell policies nationwide - already legally allowed. 

Claiming “insurance costs will go down and consumer satisfaction will go up” under his plan is nonsense. Insurers are in business to make money, maximizing premiums, minimizing payouts.

3. He’ll let individuals deduct insurance premiums from their tax returns. Under single-payer universal coverage, predatory insurers providing no healthcare are eliminated altogether, rendering his deduction scheme irrelevant. 

If implemented, it would help high income households, not others earning too little to benefit from tax schemes.

It’s unclear how he’ll handle Medicaid, saying he’ll “review basic options…and work with states” with little elaboration on how.

4. He endorses so-called Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), a boon to employers, not workers, shifting the cost of healthcare entirely to them.

Insurers and financial services predators stand to benefit most, reaping huge profits from managing funds in HSAs.

Trump claiming these plans “should be particularly attractive to young (healthy) people ignores their later in life needs when they won’t have enough coverage to handle extraordinarily expensive treatments for serious health issues.

5. It’s unclear what Trump means by requiring price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors, hospitals and HMOs. Small print disclaimers and other deceptions are longstanding practices in all industries.

Saying “(i)ndividuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedures” is pure deception. Healthcare isn’t like buying a car or other consumer products. With universal coverage, shopping wouldn’t be necessary.

6. Trump favors shifting the Medicaid burden entirely to states “to preserve our precious resources,” a scheme to eliminate this vital service altogether eventually.

7. He supports the right of consumers to freely buy “imported, safe and dependable drugs.”

Opposing mandatory insurance coverage and having access to cheaper imported drugs are the only redeeming features of what he earlier proposed.

His plan won’t lower escalating healthcare costs or assure all Americans have access to the most fundamental of human rights, along with food, shelter and clothing.

Replacing Obamacare with another corporate friendly scheme assures perpetuating the problem, not fixing it.

On January 12, the Republican controlled Senate passed a nonbinding resolution by a 51 - 48 majority to repeal and replace Obamacare, “providing the legislative tools necessary (and) move ahead with” new legislation, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. KY).

Repeal legislation will likely follow in weeks, replacement provisions voted on and enacted into law, once majority agreement is reached.

The Republican controlled House will likely follow suit. Obamacare’s demise looks certain. What replaces it won’t be consumer friendly.

What industry giants want, they’ll get. Ordinary people have no say whatever.