Trump is on his way repealing the Affordable Care Act, the so called Obamacare and so far it seems likely that the new president is going to get it done because the lower House already accepted it though with a slim margin. I think that this one is most widely critiqued action of the Trump Administration after the Immigration Ban that was issues in late January following the inauguration. Trump seems to be keen on erasing the Obama legacy although I do not personally think that all whatever left behind the 44th President has been astoundingly positive.
I find it important to highlight major differences between these two programs, the Obamacare and the ironically called Trumpcare. Before comparing and contrasting the two programs it is noteworthy that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s earlier estimations indicate that 54 million would be uninsured by 2026 if the Trumpcare becomes law which is 26 more million people than in Obamacare.
- According to Obamacare, all Americans must have health insurance, whereas the new healthcare program repeals the individual mandate, but who goes without health insurance for more than 63 days, pays 30% surcharge on their insurance premiums for a year.
- The new healthcare program also repeals the employer mandate, which means that the employers are not bound to provide healthcare to the employees versus the Obamacare, which requires all companies with more than 50 workers to afford healthcare of the workers.
- The chart shows that the rate of uninsured people across all ages and income has fallen to the lowest level on record.
Source: Peterson Institute for International Economics
- On the other hand, it is expected that the new healthcare act would transform federal funding from helping low and middle-income Americans get health care to tax breaks for high-income Americans and healthcare specialists. In addition, the new healthcare plan of the Republicans will repeal most Obamacare taxes and delays implementation on high-end health insurance plans to 2026 although the Obamacare raised Medicare taxes on the wealthy and imposed new taxes on medical devices, drug companies, tanning salons and high-end insurance plans. So, is this a healthcare or tax reform? The chart is self-explanatory.
Source: Congressional Budget Office and Joint Commission on Taxation
- Another most significant difference is, although both plans prohibit charging women more than men for the same health plan, the new act, if becomes law, bans women from using federal tax credits to buy a plan that overs abortion. Also, insurers would be allowed by the state to drop maternity care and contraceptives from basic benefits.
Furthermore, the estimations shows that the people in rural areas will be affected most by the new healthcare reforms because the premium tax credits in rural states with high healthcare costs would be radically reduced, which is actually ironic as the people who likely voted for Trump are the ones living in rural areas.
Apparently, the new healthcare program is too hard on many Americans and it will have negative implications on class stratification within the society by making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Trump is trying to hold on to his promises that many even did not make sense, such as withdrawing the U.S. from regional trade associations as of NAFTA. One of his ideas that seemed really appealing to me was investing on infrastructure because everybody knows that the public transportation system is in dire need of investment and reconstructions.