HEALTH CORNER: What Repeal Without Replacement Could Mean for Us Locally

            No matter which side of the Affordable Care Act debate you fall on, the affectations of indecision by the Trump administration could make things a lot harder on all of us. There is no magic umbrella that’s going to come out and cover you just because you agree with the President’s choices. In the interim, while there is no replacement in sight, and only black-ops drafts being written up in the middle of the night that are immediately swatted down by congress, many are left wondering what will happen to them.

            No matter where you look, there is always the “anything is better than this” option in a debate, yet when it comes to our healthcare, that rule doesn’t apply. Sure, you will have outliers out there who simply want to seem like they have a strong stance by being argumentative and saying that nothing is better than the current state, and they may even agree with that statement, in the moment, yet when they or a loved one find their way to the hospital with no idea what to expect when they get there, the argument falls apart quickly.

            Now, we’re not saying one way or another what our stance on the current state of healthcare is, but this idea of repeal now, replace whenever we get a better idea, isn’t only monumentally stupid in theory, it’s even worse in practice. Even the insurance companies, that are poised and ready to go back to the days of being able to charge tens of thousands of dollars for the smallest of issues are trepidations right now. No one knows what’s going on, even those in charge, and that denotes the first fundamental flaw.

            The second, is the method in which this repeal and do something later is being carried out is incredibly difficult to navigate, and sets up all kinds of issues in the near future as well. There will remain some aspects of the AHA, and others being stripped away over time, to where no one is getting any benefit from it. Insurance companies won’t be receiving the subsidies they used to, clients of the hospital won’t be getting coverage they used to have, and many are finding even their local options in insurance pulling out of their current marketplaces.
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            This leaves little options in the area, and what options are there are free to spike their rates as much as they please, as there will be no competition. This leaves us in a very precious place, from Seattle through to Florida, encompassing everyone in between. This is millions of our fellow residents across the country with little access to health care assistance, and even less means to afford it. Whatever your hopes for the plan of health care in the future will be, it should be one that is implemented soon, because at this rate we will all hit the point where anything is better than nothing.