What Are We “Replacing” Obamacare With?
Republicans have officially begun the long and complex road to repealing and “replacing” Obamacare…
If you believe congressional Democrats, various special-interest groups and much of the media, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are about to be unleashed. Let’s all get a grip.
Initially, any changes will be very small and incremental. Repeal won’t happen overnight, or all at once. Rather, Republicans are likely to establish a sunset date, three or four years from now, allowing time to craft a replacement. Still, sooner or later, we’ll be living under a very different health-care system.
In general, most consumers will find themselves with more and better insurance choices after ObamaCare is repealed.
One of the first things most Americans are likely to find is that they’ll have more choices when it comes to buying insurance. You may have to pay more for insurance that covers some providers and conditions, but you’ll also be able to buy cheaper, less-comprehensive insurance if you want to.
ObamaCare required all insurance to cover a wide-ranging — and expensive — “essential benefits package.” Repeal will mean more of an a la carte approach to insurance, based on individual consumer preference.
Consumers won’t just find more options in the types of plans; there should also be more insurers to choose from. And, a replacement plan will almost certainly let you shop for insurance out of state, forcing some much-needed competition into the insurance market.
People will even have the choice not to buy insurance at all, since the much-reviled individual mandate will be gone. Going without insurance may not necessarily be a wise choice, but it does re-establish a fundamental limit to state power over the individual. And it allows young and healthy people to purchase low-cost catastrophic coverage that makes much more sense for them.
