ACA requires people who can afford it to obtain health insurance or face tax penalties. This part of the law was meant to keep insurance affordable for those who are older or sick. Under the developing House Republican plan, there would be no individual mandate, meaning that people will not have ot pay a penalty if they go without insurance. One possible impact, though, is that healthy people will be less likely to buy insurance, driving up prices for those who need it most, like older people and the sick.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Repeal the employer mandate<\/h3>\n

Under ACA, larger companies must provide affordable insurance to their employees or face financial penalties. Under the Republican plan, this mandate is out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are the poison pills of the “repair” plan. Taken together, these two moves would take millions of people out of the equation–mostly younger and healthier people. Fewer enrollees in these categories means a smaller risk pool. And a smaller risk pool means more pricey insurance for everyone. That will make for headlines Republicans will love and can use to say, \u201cWe told you so.\u201d And that\u2019s where the manufactured death spiral of ACA will begin.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all Republicans are planning. Here\u2019s more:<\/p>\n

Changing subsidies<\/h3>\n

Under ACA, the federal government provides tax credits to middle-income Americans on a sliding scale according to income, to help offset the cost of premiums and deductibles.<\/p>\n

The Republican plan changes the way subsidies will be distributed by using age, instead of income, as a way to calculate how much people will receive. This means that an older person with a six-figure salary would receive a larger tax credit than a middle-age person with lower income.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s another dose of poison designed to create resentment and to cause the health care law to fail.<\/p>\n

So, if this is the plan, Republicans will be able to tell people that they listened and responded, and that they are \u201crepairing\u201d the ACA to improve \u201caccess\u201d to health care. [Note the use of the term \u201caccess.\u201d They are not promising actual health care, just the opportunity to get it, if you can.] \u00a0And it\u2019s clear that they don\u2019t intend to make it easier to buy access. They don\u2019t mention that they intend to gut Medicaid and replace ACA subsidies with health-saving accounts\u2014which are notoriously inadequate to cover the cost of insurance and actual health care.<\/p>\n

What Republicans are hoping for, it appears, is to pretend they\u2019re doing good, while injecting the “repaired” plan with a lethal dose of deadly legislative poison. And then they’ll blame the whole debacle on…Obama.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans have figured out a way to kill Obamacare without “repealing” it: Poison it. Republicans have asserted, hundreds of times, that they plan to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071,113,202],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n