The Number of People in the Off-Exchange Individual Health Insurance Market Plunged 29% in the Last Year

Is the individual health insurance market stable?

With Trump threatening to make things worse in the individual health insurance market, was it stable even before he made his threats?

See my op-ed in the National Review.

Here's Who Gets the Blame If Obamacare Fails (Hint It's Not Obama)

With Obamacare's individual health insurance market struggling, the debate has shifted to who takes the blame if it fails.

 

Supporters of the law are willing to admit that it is failing but that it's Trump's fault.

 

Trump's constant undermining of the ACA is giving his opponents ammunition in the blame game. 

 

See my op-ed at CNBC.com

 

 

How ObamaCare Could Become ZombieCare

The individual health insurance market is becoming more unstable as last year's rate increases are beginning to take their toll on the health of the risk pools––particularly among the almost half of the consumers in the market that are not eligible for subsidies.

The Trump administration is making an already bad situation worse.

President Trump is wrong when he says the system will suddenly "explode" forcing Democrats to beg him to fix Obamacare––actually it will be mostly his constituents who will be begging for relief.

See my op-ed at CNBC.com

"Repeal and Replace" Obamacare: How Will All of This Sort Itself Out?

Will the Republicans Follow Through on Their Promise to Repeal Obamacare?
Yes.

You have probably been reading press stories that bring into question whether or not Republicans will actually keep their campaign promise to "repeal" the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In fact, there is much discussion going on among Congressional Republicans about repealing key funding elements of the ACA as part of a budget process prior to having a replacement ready to pass the Congress.

But, they will defund the core elements of Obamacare sooner rather than later on their way to replacement. They have to. Repealing Obamacare as a first priority was a core campaign promise. If Congressional Republicans and President Trump fail to do this they will suffer a precipitous drop in credibility with their base.

Do Republicans Have a Replacement Plan?

"Now What Do We Do?" Trumpcare?

Of course, "Now what do we do," is the famous line from Robert Redford's character in The Candidate, stunned by his victory and confused about what to do next.

But it doesn't really apply here.

A few thoughts as all of this sinks in: