Donald Trump has promised that he will repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, as the Unites States President. This change is possible, but to get a true repeal and replace he needs 60 votes in the Senate. It may be more plausible that he will implement the series of measures he proposed during his campaign through smaller legislative changes.
Even if Trump moves to change the Affordable Care Act and repeal Obamacare this will not happen overnight. The Affordable Care Act was written into law two years and three months after President Barak Obama took office. It took another four years for the Affordable Care Act to be implemented into individual health insurance and group health insurance.
In January 2011 pieces of the Affordable Care Act were implemented into new health insurance plans. Amongst the first of the changes we saw were adding preventative / wellness benefits, the elimination of coverage caps, and the ability to leave children on a parents individual health insurance or group health insurance policy until they are twenty-six years of age.
Other pieces of the Affordable Care Act that were implemented in 2014 were that individual health insurance plans and group health insurance plans removed waiting periods, they covered pre-existing conditions, and the medical loss ratio (MLR). Pieces of the Affordable Care Act are still not implemented today. More than seven years after the law was written we are still in the implementation phase.
People want to know; will President Donald Trump get rid of Obamacare and will insurance go back to the way it was. The simple answer is there is no way to know. Even if he does make changes to Obamacare we may not see those changes until years later.
The GOP has a replacement plan to Obamacare detailed out in their A Better Way – Health Care Policy Paper, By The Numbers, and Fact Sheet.
What we at Texas Medical Plans have seen is that for most people looking at individual health insurance plans have fewer health insurance companies to choose from, monthly health insurance premiums have increased, and the health care provider networks continue to change. We have worked hard in 2016 to explore all the available options for your health insurance needs in 2017. There are other options available outside of Obamacare. If you are healthy it may be better to pay the health insurance tax penalty and get medical insurance that covers less than Obamacare. A Healthcare sharing ministry or accident plan may be a better fit for you in 2017. If you are a small business owner or our self-employed then you might be able to set up health insurance through your business as a group health insurance plan. It is now simple to set up a group with one or two people. Group health insurance plans can offer you a PPO again and access to a Nationwide network at possibly a better price than individual health insurance.
We welcome the opportunity to review all your options and will make recommendations to fit your budget. Call us at (512)847-3164. See more on our YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram pages.