When it comes to healthcare Donald Trump has a two-part plan, repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better. As with other proposals by the president elect, specifics remain scarce. Upon meeting President Obama and later Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor regarded as the architect of The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Donald Trump came to the same realization most Americans do when the law is broken down, he actually liked it.
Reduced to individual components, president Obama’s signature legislation is extremely favorable. Most, if not all, individuals agree health insurers ought not deny coverage based on preexisting conditions or a costly illness, no limits on lifetime dollar maximums, allowing dependents up to twenty-six years of age to remain on a policy and guaranteeing coverage standards including preventative care. A common sticking point for detractors remains the individual mandate, the idea that everyone must purchase coverage or face a penalty.
Donald Trump has echoed such criticism, adding the challenge of cost containment. First, Obamacare was never intended to reduce healthcare costs, at least not directly. Second, the individual mandate, a concept pushed by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, is imperative in maintaining aforementioned elements everyone, including Donald Trump, love about the law.
The individual mandate is essential to the viability of Obamacare. To reference real estate terminology,…