With the presidential election appearing to tighten up down the stretch toward November 8, there has been renewed questions about what would happen if Donald Trump were elected and attempted to make good on his promise to repeal Obamacare (also known as the Affordable Care Act).
With all the political noise and drama around an election year, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the realities around this law.
Here are some of the challenges any candidate would face if they worked to repeal the ACA.
- An estimated $137 billion deficit added to the federal budget with the repeal of Obamacare
- The repealing of the Affordable Care Act is estimated to deny around 24 million Americans health insurance coverage by the year 2025!
- 20 million women will have to face a no deductible preventive care option with the elimination of the ACA.
- The estimated cost of repealing the ObamaCare law for the next 75 years is around $6.2 trillion.”
We’re certain that many Trump supporters would argue with these predictions, and we are not taking sides in the election.
We point out this article to acknowledge that it’s easy for candidates to make promises about what they’ll do when elected, but a whole lot tougher to actually follow through on those promises.
No matter who is elected, we’re certain that Obamacare, or many aspects of the law, will be with us for quite a while. If Trump does win, he’ll have to figure out what he’ll replace the law with, and then convince Congress to go along with his plan. That will take some time, likely a long time, and the actual implementation and of “the next health care law” would take even longer.
With that settled, we can all go back to making our election night plans. We plan to make a big batch of popcorn and watch the returns come in. No matter who wins, we expect a bumpy ride and plenty of regulatory uncertainty to be the norm for the remainder of 2016 and all of 2017.
Democracy, you’re providing us with plenty of jitters this time around!
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