One of the greatest accomplishments of the Obama Administration has got to be the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. Thanks to this legislation, tens of millions of people who previously had no health insurance or way to access healthcare in the United States are now getting coverage and care for the first time in years.
But if Donald Trump were to become President later this year, as many as 18 million Americans would again be without healthcare of any kind.
A think tank called the Center for Health and Economy published a report Thursday which details the likely effects of Trump and the GOP’s repeated calls to repeal and replace Obamacare. The Center is nonpartisan and includes board members from across the political spectrum. Here’s what their study found:
The “Good” News
Premiums for people buying coverage on their own would likely be reduced, the report says, while insurers would probably give beneficiaries access to more doctors and hospitals than the plans currently on the market do.
This is what Republicans have been claiming for years, but of course they have no definitive way to prove such things would actually transpire if Obamacare suddenly went the way of the dinosaurs.
The Very Bad News
The elderly, as well as people with pre-existing conditions, would end up paying much more for insurance. And many of them wouldn’t be able to get coverage at all. The plans such folks would be able to purchase would probably have some combination of higher out-of-pocket expenses and big gaps in benefits. Additionally, people who currently rely on federal assistance or federal programs for health insurance would have that assistance dwindle or vanish entirely.
Bottom Line
The ranks of those without insurance would jump by as many as 18 million people.
Considering how dependent millions of Americans are on the current system, the only logical solution would be single-payer healthcare, which Trump considers to be “communism,” something he constantly chides Senator Bernie Sanders for advocating.
But not to worry, it wouldn’t all be bad under a Trump Administration: Trump and all of his buddies in Congress would still have their health insurance, and it would still be paid by you, the taxpayer. That alone is enough to make you ill.
Featured Image Via Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License
