It took awhile for the Obama Administration to accept the term “ObamaCare.” Nancy Pelosi was the initial driver of the massive scheme to permanently alter American medicine and insurance, and “PelosiCare” would have been a fit moniker for the wildly mis-named “Affordable Care Act.” But the administration put the whole of the new president’s political capital behind it, and the ACA went into law popularly known as “ObamaCare.”
The Republicans pledged to repeal it, from Day One. And repeatedly passed repeal bills, certain to be vetoed by the president named Obama. They needed a Republican in the White House.
Donald Trump ran, in part, on the promise of getting rid of ObamaCare. But upon taking the reins, two things became obvious: Republicans in Congress lacked the guts to repeal the ACA, and even lacked a coherent scheme to alter it.
The new president could hardly be expected to possess the plan they lacked, though on the campaign trail he suggested* the best approach: repeal, then open up insurance markets across state lines. The GOP Congress, on the other hand, was all promise and no clue.
So Speaker of the House Paul Ryan hastily cooked up what was to be the new TrumpCare — a ridiculous reform package with nothing much to say for it.
He failed to gain support from Democrats (of course) and Freedom Caucus representatives.
TrumpCare, trumped, became RyanCare. A failure.
The Freedom Caucus representatives? They breathe freely.
Sure, they “betrayed” the new president, “robbing” him of glory. But they also saved the country from a “reform” in many ways worse than ObamaCare.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* It’s worth keeping in mind that Trump had been for socialized medicine before running for office. This is why there was no reason to expect policy leadership on his part.
4 replies on “TrumpCare Trumped”
As has been proven by Medicare and Medicaid and now Obamacare, government market manipulation of the medical goods and services sector has done more harm than good, and will continue progressing in the same direction.
The correct “reform” is return to a free and voluntary market, and is apparently the only option not being considered.
Bless Rand Paul and the Freedom Caucus, and damn into retirement the RINOs who fail to understand the principals they claim to champion.
Entitlements are clearly more addictive than heroin inside the beltway.
I was horrified to see Prebus (sp?) commenting about loyalty to Mr Trump! Is he now King that we pledge our allegiance to?
My only suggestion as to how to unwind Ocare is eliminate the tax deduction for businesses on health insurance policies with deductibles less than $10,000. This would at best be a slow unwind as people would have to come to agreement with providers to bring prices back in line.
Never Trump live on in Establishment hearts but Ocare is on it’s way to a massive fail! We will remember…
Trump relied on Ryan to get his bill through. Big mistake.
However, the failure was totally expected. What government official worth his salt would
support a bill that would take power away from government, especially from DC?
Anything President Trump manages to get through that cuts back on DC’s power will be a pleasant surprise. In the meantime, no hopes, no disappointments.