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Trump Drives Another Nail Into Obamacare’s Coffin
John Florida:
H/T Rayra
And fulfills yet another campaign promise.
During the 2016 primary season, Donald Trump pledged to facilitate lower health insurance premiums by permitting coverage to be sold across state lines. Oddly, considering that conservatives have long advocated this as a way of augmenting market competition among insurers, the proposal was ridiculed by his opponents for the Republican presidential nomination. During one debate Marco Rubio actually mimicked Trump’s physical gestures, mocked his references to “lines around the states,” and snidely added, “whatever that means.” Friday, the Trump administration demonstrated what that means by issuing a new regulation allowing association health plans (AHPs) to offer coverage across state lines.
The new regulation, which was published in the Federal Register on January 5, will be available for public comment for 60 days. When it goes into effect, it will allow small employers to band together for the purpose of buying health insurance in the large group market. Specifically, it will “allow employers to form small business health plans based on geography or industry” and permit such plans “to serve employers in a state, city, county or a multi-state metro area.” It can be used to “serve all the businesses in a particular industry nationwide,” and also allows sole proprietors to join small business health plans. The Trump administration, via the U.S. Department of Labor, summarized its intended effect as follows:
https://spectator.org/trump-drives-another-nail-into-obamacares-coffin/
IronDioPriest:
I'd like to see changes for the better codified into law as opposed to regulation. As Trump is demonstrating very adeptly, what is enacted by regulation can be undone just as easily by regulation.
John Florida:
--- Quote from: IronDioPriest on January 09, 2018, 02:36:33 PM ---I'd like to see changes for the better codified into law as opposed to regulation. As Trump is demonstrating very adeptly, what is enacted by regulation can be undone just as easily by regulation.
--- End quote ---
I can see that happening when he dumps bambicare hopefully later this year.
Syzygy:
--- Quote from: IronDioPriest on January 09, 2018, 02:36:33 PM ---I'd like to see changes for the better codified into law as opposed to regulation. As Trump is demonstrating very adeptly, what is enacted by regulation can be undone just as easily by regulation.
--- End quote ---
I agree entirely, but in this case, it may be the only option. I could be totally wrong, but I think the reason insurance can't be sold across state lines now is not because of federal laws and regulations, but rather because of those of the states.
I know in my state (TN), and probably all the others, there is an insurance regulatory authority that sets the standards for whatever insurance can or can't be sold in the state.
Usually these bureaucracies are bought and paid for by the lobbyists of the insurance industry already established in the state, no different than the bought and paid for legislators that set them up and appoint their donor cronies to head them. To listen to them tell it, "it's to protect the consumer", but in reality it's to protect the vested interests' money making racket, that being the insurance companies, who are also big campaign contributors.
There's already codified federal law they could have, and should have, invoked to prevent all this bureaucratic protectionist racket, and it's in the Constitution: the interstate commerce clause. Commerce across state lines is the purview of the federal government, not the states. All these arbitrary rules and regulations about what insurance does or doesn't qualify to be sold in whatever particular state are unconstitutional on their face. Which only goes to show the power and influence of the whole industry, that they could get state legislatures to put in place all the protections (from out of state competition) for their industry, when it's obviously unconstitutional to begin with. And by "power and influence", I mean "money"-- it's a very profitable racket, and legislators come cheap these days.
Libertas:
How is that any different than union or right to work state laws?
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