President Trump Wants To Repeal Obamacare With His GOP Plan
Many Americans are really worried about the rising cost of health insurance that goes up every year and is not stabilized to fit the budget of the majority of Americans. When President Barack Obama created Obamacare with the help of other Democrats in 2010, many Americans felt relieved thinking that high cost of health insurance would actually go down, but it continued to rise. The premium inflation rate on Health Care.gov rose by 25 percent in 2017. In his speech, President Trump promised to lower the cost of health insurance with his GOP Plan that he hopes that Congress will approve.
President Trump described Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as an imploding disaster. In his first presidential address, that received rave reviews even from his toughest critics, President Trump gives a direct example of how premiums have risen under Obamacare.
Another problem regarding Obamacare that Trump addressed during his address to Congress was that Americans do not have many choices when it comes to choosing their insurer. He said that 33 percent of counties have only one insurer on the ACA exchanges. United Health Group, which is America’s biggest insurer, cut its coverage from 34 states in 2016 to only three this year. Aetna and Humana also decreased their coverage by almost 70 percent and just about 90 percent. Humana, a popular insurer among many Americans that provides good service, said that it would not be a part of the ACA marketplace in 2018.
Obamacare promised to provide Americans with many choices as to who their insurer would be, but this component of Obamacare has failed. President Trump wants to give Americans many choices when it comes down to their healthcare provider so that they are happy with their insurer, thus making the healthcare marketplace much more competitive, as well as profitable.
Despite some failures, Obamacare has been successful in insuring more Americans than before. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the ACA lowered the uninsured rate from 16 percent in 2010 to only 8.9 percent. Among many other successes, Obamacare also eliminated the bias that use to exist in the health care marketplace that denied coverage to individuals who had preexisting medical conditions. If these individuals were, in fact, able to get an insurer, then they would pay much higher prices. The GOP Plan will keep the provision of insuring every American regardless of their medical condition.
One of the most controversial components of Obamacare was that working Americans were forced to buy health insurance or else pay a fine when they filed their taxes called the SRP. Under the GOP Plan, the individual mandate that required Americans to purchase health insurance would be eradicated. The SRP was loathed by many Americans, and one of the reasons that they voted for Trump was that he made a campaign promise to get rid of the SRP, as well as Obamacare.
As far as the GOP Plan is concerned, Americans are divided. Some people are happy with Obamacare while others agree with President Trump and want to abolish it. At this point, most Democrats and Republicans are opposed to the GOP Plan. This past Tuesday, President Trump held a bowling event at the Eisenhower Office Building so that he would be able to talk to Congress about his healthcare plan in an informal setting and perhaps even garner support for his GOP Plan.
The tradition of bowling at the White House began with President Truman. As a gift for Truman’s 63rd birthday, Truman’s friends from Missouri decided to fund a bowling alley as a tribute to him. Truman regularly played poker and was not that interested in bowling. However, during his first bowling game at the White House, he knocked down 7 out of 10 pins, which was quite good considering that Truman was not an avid bowler. During Truman’s presidency, a White House Bowling League was formed in 1950 with employees from the White House.
Today bowling, among many other recreational activities, is still popular at the White House. Of course, it will take more than several games of bowling for President Trump to convince Congress to pass his GOP Plan. In order to repeal and replace Obamacare, he needs at least 60 votes in the Senate.
[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
