President Trump should work to repeal and replace Obamacare with nothing!

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Those who support and defend our written Constitution and the intentions and beliefs under which it was adopted, and who especially support our Constitution’s Tenth Amendment and federalism, certainly know our federal government has not be granted any authority whatsoever to enter the states to tax for, spend on, regulate and control the peoples' decisions and choices regarding their health-care needs. Keep in mind, however, that our federal government does have a legitimate responsibility to care for our military war veterans.


So, what is the proper path to follow? President Trump ought to promote legislation which repeals and replaces Obamacare with nothing! The legislation ought to first declare that in view of our federal government’s defined and limited powers, and that under the 10th Amendment all power not delegated to our federal government are reserved to the states and people therein, that Congress is not authorized to enter the States to tax for, spend on and regulate the people’s decisions and choices regarding their health-care needs.


The proposal ought to continue by setting a specific date, such as January 1st, 2018, when the federal government will no longer tax for, spend on nor regulate the people’s decisions regarding the health-care needs. In addition, the legislation must also stipulate that the federal government will reduce federal taxes, across the board, by the amount now spent on Medicaid and subsidies to the poor, leaving that money within the States so each State may have access to these funds in order to deal with their own poor and needy who now rely upon federal assistance for their health care.


This of course is very much in harmony with our Founders intentions which are summarized in Federalist No. 45:


“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.


The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”


And with regard to Congress’ legitimate power to regulate commerce among the states to insure free trade and competition among the States, The McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 ought to be repealed by the proposed legislation, which would go a long way to end price fixing, restraint of interstate trade and commerce, and a monopolizing of the insurance industry, which has without question allowed the cost of health insurance to skyrocket over the years.


Let us work to return to our founding principles, especially the Tenth Amendment and federalism, our Constitution’s plan.


JWK




"If the Constitution was ratified under the belief, sedulously propagated on all sides, that such protection was afforded, [the 10th amendment] would it not now be a fraud upon the whole people to give a different construction to its powers?"___ Justice Story

Johnwk wrote:

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And with regard to Congress’ legitimate power to regulate commerce among the states to insure free trade and competition among the States, The McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 ought to be repealed by the proposed legislation, which would go a long way to end price fixing, restraint of interstate trade and commerce, and a monopolizing of the insurance industry, which has without question allowed the cost of health insurance to skyrocket over the years.

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YES!! YES!! YES!! YES!! YES!!

Do this immediately, separately from anything else Congress and President want to do with Obamacare. Do this now and watch what happens. It will be amazing.

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Originally Posted by Judy

Johnwk wrote:



YES!! YES!! YES!! YES!! YES!!

Do this immediately, separately from anything else Congress and President want to do with Obamacare. Do this now and watch what happens. It will be amazing.

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I know the following is a bit long, but it is essential to know to understand our current situation and federal control over our decisions and choices regarding our health-care needs.

I have long stated that part of health insurance reform starts with a repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945. Let me give you the background.

As a result of a Senate investigation in 1888-1889 which found a number of Trusts [sugar, beef, oil] were interfering with free trade among the States, the Sherman Anti Trust Act was passed to “protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies.” But the Act remained, as noted by Supreme Court Justice Harlan, “a piece of useless legislation.”



But in the mid 1940’s a criminal indictment was handed down charging 27 individuals with violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Some of the specific allegations were conspiracy, price fixing, restraint of interstate trade and commerce, and monopolizing trade and commerce. Please keep these charges in mind because they are very pertinent to our current situation and seem to reflect what folks in government have been engaged in. The defendants in the case claimed they were not required to conform to the standards of business conduct established by the Sherman Act because “the business of fire insurance is not commerce.” But the Supreme Court decided the insurance business was in fact commerce and subject to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and Congress’s regulations. See SOUTH-EASTERN UNDERWRITERS ASSOCIATION, Decided June 5, 1944


Less than a year after the Supreme Court decision was handed down, Congress passed the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 providing that the “business of insurance, and every person engaged therein, shall be subject to the laws of the several States which relate to the regulation or taxation of such business.” In other words Congress decides to overrule the Court’s decision and relinquish its constitutionally assigned duty to regulate commerce “among the States”, but only with regard to the insurance industry! And by neglecting this power the various State Legislatures are allowed to engage in practices which would otherwise be indictable offenses under the Sherman and Clayton Acts, and so, the various State Legislatures decide to engage in such practices e.g., adopting discriminatory laws which work to stifle competition from out-of-state companies (restraint of interstate trade and commerce).


The power of a State Legislature to impose discriminatory law upon out of state business entities doing business within their state is immediately tested in PRUDENTIAL INS. CO. vs. BENJAMIN (1946). The South Carolina law is upheld by the Supreme Court. The law imposed an annual tax of 3 percent of the premiums of out of state business entities conducted in South Carolina which is not imposed on instate business entities. In fact, the Court in handing down its decision ignored the very intentions for which Congress was granted power to regulate commerce among the states, which was to prohibit the various states from imposing discriminatory law upon out of state entities and undermine free trade among the States.


But what is most amazing, when one realizes it, the defendants in the SOUTH-EASTERN UNDERWRITERSASSOCIATION case were charged with conspiracy in price fixing, restraint of interstate trade and commerce, and monopolizing trade and commerce. Well, with Congress’s behind-the-scene deal making in 1945, the McCarran-Ferguson Act was passed and paved the way for the various Sate Legislatures to “legally” engage in price fixing, restraint of interstate trade and commerce, and monopolizing the insurance industry within their borders, which are indictable offenses under SOUTH-EASTERN UNDERWRITERSASSOCIATION


And now comes Obamacare which in fact is designed to engage in price fixing, restraint of interstate trade and commerce, and monopolizing the insurance industry on a federal level! Are these not indictable offenses under SOUTH-EASTERN-UNDERWRITERS-ASSOCIATION?



You be the judge!

JWK

Yes, cannot wait a year for something to be done on the high premiums and very little doctor coverage.

All we here about is the supposedly 15 million people who will lose health insurance if Trump repeals Obamacare....

What about the 15 million in the Individual Market who lost there plans when the ACA went into effect?

What about the other 300 million people in the U.S. who got hit with the huge premiums in order to subsidize the
15 million extremely sick and illegal aliens covered under Obamacare?

I prefer to go back to the pre-Obamacare healthcare because it was PPO Plan and 1/4 of the price it is now.

I totally agree, lorrie. The repeal of Obamacare and Tax Reform must be done now. No excuses by the Congresscritters. No more talk, we want action.

Also, to simplify the issue of the McCarran-Ferguson Act Repeal, this is the action that Trump was talking about in all of his rallies, speeches, interviews and debates about "erasing the lines".

ERASE THE LINES NOW!! ERASE THE LINES NOW!! ERASE THE LINES NOW!!


It's a 1 sentence bill to achieve this and applies to not only health insurance companies but all insurance companies, fire, auto, health and so forth.

I was a licensed insurance agent in Upstate NY. I can attest the training is rigorous and the state licensing test is very hard to pass. You need a different license in every state you sell insurance in. Which mean additional training and another state licensing test and yes additional fees. This being said I went to a company awards dinner in 1995 one of the bosses laughed about a dinner he was at with other Insurance company heads a dinner meeting with President Bill Clinton. The guy laughed and said you can expect to be making more money as the premium's will be going up in the next 10-25 years. The government is going to make it mandatory that everyone has insurance or they will be fined. I though this guy was nuts. They have known this was coming and did nothing. Interesting fact - In 1995 20% of every premium went to cover people who were uninsured according to my class instructor. We still had affordable premiums and great coverage. Now according to this article it is at 1,000 +average for each policy a year. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7693848&page=1
Now you have to figure an extra 89 million people are here that weren't in 1995 our population has grown enormous.
http://www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table
It is quite obvious to everyone but politicians that premium's are so high it has become unaffordable to many Americans along with high deductibles and co-pays it is close to being useless insurance anyway. So the more uninsured, the higher the premium's grow and higher co-pays and deductibles. There is no end to this situation in site it will just continue.
But still the so called nonprofit insurance companies CEO make millions a year. The agent sure doesn't I can tell you that.
This is not going to get better until we scrap the whole U.S. healthcare system and start over again. It might work if we could open up American healthcare insurance to International foreign markets, they are already established and have steady income and lower premiums than the U.S. The prices should be lower spread across a larger group and other countries. Making it more affordable to Americans. More people could afford coverage. The uninsured would have to be covered by our government which it already does anyway with our medicare tax. Just a thought.

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This is not going to get better until we scrap the whole U.S. healthcare system and start over again. It might work if we could open up American healthcare insurance to International foreign markets, they are already established and have steady income and lower premiums that the U.S. The prices should be lower spread across a larger group and other countries. Making it more affordable to Americans. More people could afford coverage. The uninsured would have to be covered by our government which it already does anyway with our medicare tax. Just a thought.

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This is the idea behind erasing the lines. Repeal of McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 doesn't have any effect on state regulations of insurance agents or additional laws that states may want to impose on insurance companies. McCarran-Ferguson Act exempts insurance companies from the Federal Trade Commission regulations and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. To take advantage of that exemption, insurance companies set up state based subsidiaries in all 50 states, each subsidiary only serves the people of that particular state, so the "pool" is very small compared to most businesses that trade on an interstate basis.

Repealing the McCarran-Ferguson Act not only does away with the Anti-Trust issues that raise premiums through monopoly and anti-competition behavior like collusion and price-fixing, it subjects the whole industry to other federal fair trade regulations to prevent predatory sales, fraud, schemes, negligence, discrimination, and other unfair illegal activity. But most importantly it expands the "pool" for each insurance company from the present state population to the population of the entire country. So instead of being 1 of 4 companies that serve Mississippi, they would be 1 of 1,000 that serve the whole nation and the broad spectrum of our national demographics.

Premiums will drop like rocks and services will increase. Co-pays and deductibles will be much smaller and the variety of services and different types of policies will be many, varied and very consumer oriented because there will be interstate national competition.

That doesn't change the underlying demographic problem of so many poor and unemployed in our country who can't afford health insurance at any price. Until we fix the economy we have no choice but to use tax dollars, more state than federal I would think, to pay for their health care until they have a good full time job and buy their own or hopefully have an employer plan they can sign up for.

Thank you for raising the point about the "pool", posylady, because that is a very very important advantage of repealing the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 and "erasing the lines".

Good information. Thank you.

Judy, It might work and should of always been open on state lines. The only problem is that the pool will not be established already to cover millions and to take millions of people who have been uninsured at the start would drain a lot of their resources right off the bat. Uninsured people who become insured start going to the Dr. and many are sure to have serious health issues that will cost. It might work. It also may take a lot of insurance companies down with the added resource strain. Government might have to bail them out at some point. But after a few years of building up resources it could work. Most insurance companies are also insured by Lloyd's of London so most may be O.K. I am just not very trusting of our Health Insurance companies in the U.S. doing the right thing. They are a lot like the big Pharma companies. They want to be the only ones doing business in the U.S. so they can control the market.

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Originally Posted by posylady

Judy, It might work and should of always been open on state lines. The only problem is that the pool will not be established already to cover millions and to take millions of people who have been uninsured at the start would drain a lot of their resources right off the bat. Uninsured people who become insured start going to the Dr. and many are sure to have serious health issues that will cost. It might work. It also may take a lot of insurance companies down with the added resource strain. Government might have to bail them out at some point. But after a few years of building up resources it could work. Most insurance companies are also insured by Lloyd's of London so most may be O.K. I am just not very trusting of our Health Insurance companies in the U.S. doing the right thing. They are a lot like the big Pharma companies. They want to be the only ones doing business in the U.S. so they can control the market.

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That's right, posylady. That's why I said this:

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That doesn't change the underlying demographic problem of so many poor and unemployed in our country who can't afford health insurance at any price. Until we fix the economy we have no choice but to use tax dollars, more state than federal I would think, to pay for their health care until they have a good full time job and buy their own or hopefully have an employer plan they can sign up for.

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We'll have to underwrite expanded Medicaid or what Trump said on the campaign trail that I liked better which is, if someone is sick without insurance and no money to pay the bill, then tax payers pay the hospital bill on a reduced negotiated rate, until the person can get a job, a better life and afford insurance of their own. If they have a good job but don't have any insurance, then they'll have to pay the bill, work out a payment plan with the hospital and pay it off over-time.

We right now have 75 million people on Medicaid, about 14 million on SCHIP plus about 50 million on Medicare. That's at least 140 million of our 330 million people already on government funded insurance. The SS Disability I'm not sure how that works, whether they have early Medicare of some kind or not, I would imagine they do, so that's probably another 5 million. So that's 145 million.

Now for me, I've no problem with this 50 million on Medicare or the 5 million or whatever the number is on Disability. But I have a helluva problem with this 75 million on Medicaid and the 14 million on SCHIP. About 5 million of the 75 million on Medicaid are Seniors who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. I've no problem with that 5 million or whatever the number is today, that's what it was a few years ago when I did all this research on the subject. Maybe's 6 million today, but whatever it is, I'm fine with that. But for the rest, the objective is to get that other 70 million of Medicaid and the 14 million on SCHIP, full time jobs with companies that either pay high enough wages so they can buy their own insurance or better, go back to the ole days and employers provide a company plan voluntarily, not by mandate.

So you take the other 180 million people who are above poverty and SCHIP levels who are not retired or disabled and that's a pretty large pool that will grow as we create jobs and the SCHIPS program is ended, and the Medicaid numbers drop from 70 million down to 20 million or less. That would be a national pool of employed people of 180 million self-sustaining plus 14 million from former SCHIPPERS which is combined 194 million plus the 50 million that drop off Medicaid to self-sustaining and that's 244 million people plus a good share of the 50 million seniors who want and need supplemental plans.

That's a big pool to work with, especially through employer provided plans.

Then you have to work with our hospitals and drug companies to get some of those crazy costs down. And that means hiring American Doctors. So many hospitals now have imported these foreign doctors who I can tell you many of them do not know what they're doing. I don't know if it's their basic educations, language issues, attitudes, cultural differences, arrogance, or what it is, but it's a problem, a huge problem. We have to get more Americans into medical school. We have to stress that this is a good field to go into and we have to expand our American Medical Schools so they can take on more Americans to attend medical school with priority to fill the need. We also need to encourage doctors to make house calls. This would dramatically reduce hospital costs because it reduces emergency room visits and subsequent "admissions" when all the person may have needed was a shot of penicillin or a prescription. When the hospitals see that you have great insurance, they book you in for a several day stay, drug you so you can't think straight, and milk it for all its worth.

I've posted about this McCarran-Ferguson Act for years, that's where it starts. It's a simple bill, a no-brainer, completely separate from "Obamacare" and with that one simple action, the industry itself will gear up into action and start funding competitive national plans, no government, no legislation, it will just happen. I do like the government rules concerning pre-existing conditions, as well as no drops just because you got sick and actually used your insurance, and also no rescission without cause. We do those simple things of repealing McCarran-Ferguson and have a simple little bill that covers pre-existin conditions, drops for use and no valid cause rescission and there will be companies and plans all over the place for the 180 million pool and then grow with the SCHIPPERS when they go off SCHIP, the former Medicaiders when they go off Medicaid and Seniors who want and need supplemental plans.