Throughout his election campaign, President Elect Trump made it clear that one of his first actions as President would be to repeal and replace Obamacare. With the date of his inauguration approaching, many Americans may be wondering what will happen to their cover. It is only natural that people have questions but the reality is that no one can say for certain what the next steps will be and for now we just have to rely on educated guesses based on the past behavior of Trump and Congress.
What Will The Main Changes Be?
– Regulatory control for health care will be placed back in the hands of individual states and taken away from Federal Government.
– Access to Health Savings Accounts would be expanded. There would also be an expansion to the type of costs that could be paid from these accounts. This would also include any costs that were incurred immediately before the account was opened and so this goes some way to protect people who are covered by the pre-existing condition provision of Obamacare.
– The reduction in the number of people that are enrolled in the Medicaid program. Record numbers of people have their health insurance through this program at the moment and so careful planning will be needed to ensure that these people are able to maintain their cover.
– The introduction of one-time enrolment. This would give people a certain window where they are able to take out insurance. After this window is closed then insurance would only be available to those who remained healthy and so it would be a real risk to not take it out. As David Resnick & Associates will advise you, having health insurance is vital especially if you ever need to make a personal injury claim. This is because you are only able to claim back the amount you have paid.
– Tax credits for those who are not covered for medical insurance by their employer. This will help to ensure that more of the population are able to afford insurance. These tax credits would be available to everyone regardless of their income. A higher level of tax credits would be given to older people to account for the fact that they are likely to need more coverage.
When Will These Take Effect?
Even if the repeal of Obamacare is passed into legislation by Congress in the early part of 2017, it is unlikely to be signed off by the President until the summer. It may then take up to another two years before the legislation comes into force. These changes will not happen overnight and people should find that they have enough time to prepare. You can still take out coverage with Obamacare for 2017 and there will be no danger of your coverage ending before the end of the year.
Will I Be Left With No Insurance?
There is very little chance of anyone that currently has insurance suddenly finding themselves without cover. This would be political suicide for the government and therefore is something that they will avoid at all costs. One of the reasons why the changes are expected to take so long to come into force is that there is a lot of work to be done to make sure that the Act can be replaced for the people that it covers.
Obamacare has been a very controversial act at times and it has never really had the full support of Congress. There seems very little doubt that it will be repealed at some stage during the Trump presidency but there is no need for people to panic just yet about losing their cover. What will come next is also something that remains to be seen and is something that could define the Trump presidency for either the wrong or the right reasons.