THE strange thing about Donald Trump’s new executive actions on health care is the identity of those who will suffer their consequences. On October 12th Mr Trump kicked off a deregulatory process to permit widespread formation of so-called Association Health Plans (AHPs), insurance policies run by groups of small firms. Then his administration announced that it would stop paying cost-sharing subsidies, payments to insurers to compensate them for lowering deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for the poorest buyers. Both moves are likely to end up inflicting the most pain on self-employed, middle- to upper-income folk—in other words, on a Republican constituency.
Like employer-sponsored insurance, AHPs would not be subject to many of Obamacare’s regulations. They could therefore entice young and healthy people away from Obamacare’s marketplaces. Depending on how easy it becomes to join an AHP, the effect would be more or less dramatic. In an extreme case, most healthy people could leave Obamacare’s exchanges. If any...Continue reading
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