How the incoming Trump administration handles health care policy is perhaps the most consequential question hanging over the nation’s budgetary outlook.
That’s why policy analysts are scrambling to read the tea leaves on health care amid conflicting signals. Republicans seem to have one foot on the gas pedal and one foot on the brakes.
How the incoming Trump administration handles health care policy is perhaps the most consequential question hanging over the nation’s budgetary outlook.
That’s why policy analysts are scrambling to read the tea leaves on health care amid conflicting signals. Republicans seem to have one foot on the gas pedal and one foot on the brakes.
The tension between speed and deliberation is best exemplified by the congressional Republicans’ developing strategy for delivering on their campaign promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as “Obamacare.”
Republican are considering a fast-track approach for repeal, setting up a vote as early as February or March. But they have held off in fully developing a ready-to-go ACA replacement plan.
Republicans are now thinking that the effective date of any ACA repeal could be delayed for a year or more while they come up with a replacement plan. This would provide a quick win on the political front but it would leave the nation’s health care system in limbo.
The uncertainty for insurers, beneficiaries and government finances that would result from a “repeal now and replace later” strategy should be avoided. What seems like a political quick win could easily become a long-term quagmire.
