Parsing The Tax Bill’s Health Impact: Is The ACA Dead?; Also The Health Law’s Failed Cost Controls
Opinion writers analyze how the tax bill will affect a variety of health issues.
The New York Times:
Requiem For The Individual Mandate
The individual mandate, an idea inspired by conservative intellectuals but ultimately embraced by Democratic lawmakers as an essential part of the Affordable Care Act, will soon be dead. The provision would be eliminated under the tax bill passed on Wednesday. Left behind would be a policy structure that relied on the mandate to push the young and healthy to buy health insurance and thus strengthen the marketplace for millions of Americans. The Affordable Care Act, which adopted the mandate as a central provision, will remain the law, and President Trump far overstated matters when he said that “we have essentially repealed Obamacare.” (Margot Sanger-Katz, 12/21)
The Washington Post:
Trump Just Told The Truth
On Wednesday, the 335th day of his presidency, Donald J. Trump did something most extraordinary and uncharacteristic. He told the truth. The president, celebrating his $1.5 trillion tax cut with fellow Republicans at the South Portico of the White House, was midway through his remarks when he veered sharply off message. “I shouldn’t say this,” Trump said, “but we essentially repealed Obamacare.” ... Republicans, in rushing the tax bill to passage, kept fairly quiet about the fact that they were killing the “individual mandate” and thereby removing the engine that made the Affordable Care Act work. In doing so, they threw the health-care system into chaos without offering any remedy. And Trump just claimed paternity of the destruction. (Dana Milbank, 12/20)
Huffington Post:
Top Republican Brags About His Party’s Sabotage Of Obamacare
Imagine it’s 2005, and a top Republican lawmaker boasted about closing Social Security Agency bureaus, making it tougher for seniors to get their checks. Or imagine it’s 2009, and a leading Democrat bragged about cutting supplies for Army units in Iraq, hobbling the war effort. Crazy, right? Well, it’s 2017, and the second most powerful Republican in the U.S. Senate just crowed about how he and his colleagues have wrecked part of the Affordable Care Act, undermining a program that helps millions to get insurance. (Jonathan Cohn, 12/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
ObamaCare’s Failed Cost Controls
When the authors of the Affordable Care Act promised to “bend the cost curve” in health care, it was typical Washington doublespeak. Voters likely heard those words as a promise that costs would go down, but the intended meaning was merely that they would rise more slowly than before. Yet even by that meager standard, ObamaCare is a failure. Costs are rising faster than before, and there’s no real prospect of a reversal. The key provisions of the law that were supposed to produce savings and efficiencies either haven’t worked or will never be implemented. (Joseph R. Antos and James C. Capretta, 12/20)
Bloomberg:
Republicans Behaving Badly On Health Care
Republicans had pledged for years that they would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. They wouldn't strand millions without health care. But they are now doing just that: repealing a key piece of the legislation in an attempt to collapse the individual market. ... Like it or not, people strongly tend to hold incumbents responsible for government actions, and justified or not -- and now, it certainly will be -- voters will tend to hold Republicans responsible for whatever happens with health care. (Jonathan Bernstein, 12/20)
Raleigh News & Observer:
Any Move To Cut Medicare And Social Security Will Backfire On Republicans
With the tax cut for millionaires and big business passed by Republicans, economists of differing political persuasions seem to be agreeing that a day of reckoning will come somewhere down the road, when those permanent tax cuts for the big corporations are making them richer than ever and the ones for the middle class – relatively paltry – will expire. As the huge cuts begin to take a toll on the budget, Ryan and his Republican mates, or their successors, will start looking at what falls under the general category of “entitlement reform.” Translation: They’ll go after Medicare and Social Security. (Jim Jenkins, 12/20)
