‘Willful neglect’ of Obamacare is unsafe and unacceptable

In my younger days as a newspaper reporter, my beat was a busy city with a historic district. Every month, there was a new developer who wanted to demolish an old building, but couldn’t do so because of the structure’s location within the district. So, more times than not, the developer simply let the building deteriorate to the point that it crumbled to the ground or became otherwise unsafe due to lack of attention, leaving the developer free to rebuild.

 

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The term was “willful neglect,” a tool that delighted developers and rankled citizens who had no recourse.

President Donald Trump is trying to let Obamacare disintegrate through a similar mechanism. He is willing to turn his back and walk away from insurance subsidies, promoting open enrollment and other means to simply watch the foundation crumble.

But unlike the historic structures, Obamacare encompasses millions of Americans who will suffer, as well as their physicians, when access to care ends. His actions-or lack thereof-will cause rates to skyrocket for those who rely on marketplace plans for care. Current payer participants in the marketplace have already been fleeing, and the president’s pledge to let “Obamacare implode” surely won’t improve the situation.

 

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The president already signed an executive order in January, to “minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens” of the Affordable Care Act, taking aim at the individual mandate (allowing more to claim exemptions) and instead gave states more leeway to claim harm due to the act (via Medicaid programs).

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