The Not So Affordable Care Act

By: Andrew Bingham

Background on statement made:

During the second 2016 Presidential Debate, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were asked a question from the member of the audience about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) on how they plan to lower premiums, deductibles, co-pays, prescriptions, and increase the coverage. Trump’s stance is to repeal the ACA and replace it with something that is “absolutely much less expensive.” Clinton’s stance is to fix Obamacare. Clinton doesn’t want to see the 20 million people who benefit from Obamacare lose that coverage and she doesn’t want to see the 170 million people who get their insurance through employers lose the big benefits that the ACA gives them as said during the second Presidential Debate. These “big benefits” she states are:

“Number one, insurance companies can’t deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

Number two, no lifetime limits. Which is a big deal if you have serious health problems. Number

three, women can’t be charged more than men for our health insurance which is the way it used

to be before the Affordable Care Act. Number four, if you’re under twenty-six and your parents

have a policy, you can be on that policy until the age of twenty-six.”

Clinton also proposed that “we’ve got to get cost down, we’ve got to provide some additional help to

small businesses so that they can afford to provide health insurance.” Trump says that “their method of fixing it is to go back and ask congress for more money.” Also stating that we have almost “20 trillion dollars in debt.”

Purpose of this blog article:

The purpose is to see who is more right? Is Donald Trump right? Is Hillary Clinton right? Who has the facts? Who has the best plan? Who knows what they’re doing? Both candidates are questionable ones. There may not even be an answer to all of these questions.

Evidence for and/or against claims:

Just like Hillary Clinton accused Bernie Sanders of wanting to appeal the ACA during the primaries,

Donald Trump accused Clinton of wanting to go to a single-payer plan, like Canada. Just like Clinton’s assertion of Sanders wanting to appeal Obamacare was wrong and misleading, Trump’s assertion was wrong as well. Clinton wants to build on the ACA. She wants to keep what is good about the Affordable Care Act and fix what is wrong with it rather than start over completely.

According to an article published earlier this year, eleven of the thirty-four non-profit startups that are a co-operation of Obamacare remain. They are struggling with over $400 million in combined losses last year (2015). Martin Hickey, CEO of New Mexico Health Connections states, “I have to raise prices because I have to assume the worse.” As they expect to increase their prices by about a third in the coming year. The Affordable Care Act did give Americans those “big benefits” mentioned in the second Presidential Debate by Clinton. It did also help cover over 90% of the population with health insurance. Dropping the uninsured rate by 5.1 percent between 2013 – 2015.

Still, the premiums and deductibles of Obamacare are too high. Families are being charged double,

almost triple, of what they used to pay. According to a recent article, young people are applying for

“short-term” insurance programs which have tax penalties on them. The federal government is looking to limit these programs because they do not meet the Obamacare requirements. The more the people sign up for these short-term insurances, the less people are signed up with Obamacare. The less people are signed up with Obamacare, the higher the premiums become. That’s why the federal government is looking to limit these short-term insurances so that instead of lasting a year, they only last three months. Also, they cannot be immediately renewed. There are a lot of lies fed to us in this debate, so it’s unclear what is true and what is not. Trump claims that Clinton wants to ask congress for more money to supposedly give to the small business owners so that they can provide health insurance to their beneficiaries. Trump also states that there is an artificial border blocking other insurance companies from coming in and competing. Health plan officials are saying that a greater flexibility of insurance policies needs to be given in order to better sell their coverage plans.

Conclusion:

For the most part, what Hillary Clinton was saying was fact. Donald Trump also had some hard hitting facts, but during the debate, there was a lot of anecdotal statements. Assumptions from both

candidates about each other were given, and it is yet to be proven if they are true or not. Trump has

been said to have a plan, on his website he lays out his plan. But it is questionable on whether or not he sticks to his own plans. He has apparently given multiple views on how he’s going to lower taxes, I wouldn’t doubt he has multiple views on health care. Clinton’s plan to help small business owners to increase their ability to provide coverage is risky, considering the national debt, but no matter what, the ACA has helped many consumers with their situations. Whether those benefits outweigh the negatives is still up for debate. But to see both candidates are willing to take risks has to mean something. Risking it all, though, may not be the best idea.