"Some people profit from keeping things exactly the way they are."

Okay; we're both fighting against them. What's your plan on HOW to control costs?

"I haven't seen any details, so calling it what Republicans want feels a little premature."

Sure you have; it's the current TrumpCare. No mandate, so prices had to reflect the aging marketplace.

TrumpCare is no coverage unless you can afford it (roughly $24K/yr for a 60yr old couple), so its slogan should be...

Either plan to give your life savings to the medical industry, or die quickly, folks!

"If you bothered to read my posts you'd see what I believe."

Yeah; platitudes. And a COMPLETE MISUNDERSTANDING of how health insurance works.

YES, the costs go up EVERY YEAR. That's because...STUNNING SURPRISE!...you get OLDER every year. Stop blaming actuarial facts for that part of the annual increases.

As I've explained on other threads, every single health insurance police on folks from 27 to 64 has a different rate for how old you are. If a 27yr old is paying $300, and a 64yr old is paying $1500 (for that same policy), there will be 38 different rates, graduating EVERY SINGLE YEAR. A 59yr old will always pay more than a 58 yr old, and less than a 60 yr old. That's how the rate charts are set up.

I've seen nothing even acknowledging expected annual automatic increases.

"a system that directly addresses today's issues including cost controls "

That's a platitude. EVERYONE wants to control costs. What are your plans on HOW to control costs?

Will you be asking doctors to charge less (and therefore profit less)?
Would you cap annual raises and bonuses for medical field personnel?
Would you allow/force Medicare to negotiate for ANY AND ALL drugs they cover?
Will deductibles and co-pays rise?
Will folks get reasonable mileage deductions for the extra travel when rural hospitals close, even if they don't itemize?

And finally:
How may deaths-above-average do you expect per year, once a trillion dollars starts being cut from Medicaid?

" The enhancements were written to be temporary and are now expiring."

So are the trillions of tax cuts for the world's wealthiest...but the Republicans somehow found a way to extend those, didn't they?

Seems like TrumpCare is working out the way Republicans want.

"A few days ago I wrote Trump will have to watch out for people who will sabotage his efforts."

What a riot.

Republicans spent 15 years trying to sabotage the former ACA (now TrumpCare). They refused to correct its errors, refused to try to improve it, and they've literally put its obliteration into proposed laws SEVENTY TIMES.

You're basically saying you don't want Democrats to act like Republicans already have.

Why aren't folks talking about the elephant in the room?

I was watching some podclip where Kash Patel was asked pointblank about the files. He recoiled and said something about it being above his pay grade. But the took in his eyes was even creepier than usual, as in he'd seen what's in there, and wants nooooo part of what it's about.

What's it about?

Epstein always got sweetheart deals because his job was to get kompromat on the uber-powerful. And not just Ds and Rs. On the world's wealthiest and most powerful.

"Every year, the money needed will always go up a little bit more,"

That's because every year, you get older. And every year, there's medical inflation.

Every one of the policies on healthcare.gov, EVERY ONE OF THEM, has a rising price for every age. Between 27 and 64, there are THIRTY-EIGHT different premiums for every policy, all based on your age that year.

The folks who are 64 ALWAYS pay top of the market (Currently around $1200-$1500month), and that's usually what COBRA folks pay as well.

So your prices should go up every year for TWO reasons: you're a more expensive client than younger you last year...

...and medical inflation.

"Subsidizing insurance can't have run away premiums."

What you're doing won't LOWER the costs. The only way to do that is a Public Option.

What are your ideas on actually lowering the costs? All I've seen is platitudes (We can't have runaway premiums; We have to lower the costs) but no hard suggestions.

"How Millionaires Get Obamacare Subsidies Intended to Aid the Poor"

Yeah...if you're in an age bubble and are willing to buy crappy-return bonds and sell lots of other assets, to live on ~$60,000 a year.

Frankly, that's nothing like the Roth Conversion bubble between 65-70, when one spouse retires but the other doesn't.

"Every year, the money needed will always go up a little bit more"

That's called inflation. It happens...seemingly every year!

"We need cost controls tied to whatever Healthcare system we inact. "

Sounds like Medicare for All, or any kind of Universal Health Care. Most first-world countries do it via taxation of ALL the populace.

"Lack of cost controls was ACA'S ultimate undoing."

The reason TrumpCare has problems is Republicans removed the mandate. You can't remove the main leg and pretend that won't matter.

"If the mandate had been kept, now we'd have healthy young people subsidizing the unhealthy "

Don't look now, but that is how EVERY insurance works: those who don't use it subsidize those who do. If EVERYBODY used it, insurers would go broke.

"We're pulling together the best ideas that we can, in the quickest fashion, to bring premiums down,"

Their "best" idea to date:

Send folks $2000 to cover their $7000 increase. (According to Republican Math, that covers it)

The ideas they WON'T embrace:

Eliminate the insurance middlemen.
Create a Public Option.
Price increase caps for the medical industry.

What WILL happen:

McInsurance, with a side of Gaslighting how great it is.

FTA:
"We're pulling together the best ideas that we can, in the quickest fashion, to bring premiums down," Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday"

It's only been 15 years, give them another 2 weeks.

" As has turned out, it created other problems."

Republicans never correcting its mistakes.
Republicans never allowing improvement.
Republicans killing the mandate.

This is TrumpCare.

" ACA wasn't a bad idea. It just didn't solve real problems."

The "real problem", as you intimated, was the trajectory of medical inflation. The ACA bent that curve downward.

I should know; I've been on the front lines of this issue since the mid 80s.

Since O-Care, medical inflation HAS NOT been 400% of regular inflation. How TF can you say that wasn't a "real" problem? It's like you don't know what TF you're talking about, but your blather matches your talking points.

"they got busted in an audit."

It's not that type of audit.

"When ACA activated my insurance for my wife doubled I had to pay? Was that fair?"

In the decade before O-Care, inflation was 31%; medical inflation was 131%, more than FOUR TIMES inflation. It's the oversized annual increases you've been referring to in your prior posts.

If her costs doubled overnight (which I sincerely doubt) it's probably because she wasn't covered prior, or only had McInsurance.

O-Care mandates free preventative care, like screenings, physicals, mammograms, and prostate exams.

"Wait until April 15th."

A lot of refunds will be based on Biden's energy credits; Trump 2.0 expires those tax breaks at the end of December.

IOW, if you're doing insulation, hot water heaters, HVAC units, doors, windows, etc, DO IT NOW, and make sure the job is done and check cleared by December 31st.

"Sustainability depends on fixing the cost drivers"

That would be coverage without the insurance middlemen. Is that what you're endorsing?

" You and I would probably be in agreement that cost controls are needed."

Well, the Republicans chose to make costs higher when they killed the mandate.

Do we agree?

" We need to know exactly, "where is the money going?"

Snoofy told you: America has middlemen health insurance companies who have to pay management and corporate staff.

In UHC countries, the government is the insurer, and health insurers offer boutique insurance.

" You sound determined to believe all ACA needs is another cash infusion and mandates."

Removing the mandate is like removing a leg from the Eiffel Tower. If it wobbles or falls, that's the fault of the folks who removed the leg.

Republicans either knew killing the mandate would jack up rates, or they're too stupid to be allowed to govern.

Why won't you blame Republicans for killing the mandate? And how is the current situation not TrumpCare? These are the parameters TRUMP created and cultivated.

And all without even THE CONCEPT OF A PLAN.

"Seriously?"

They reset the fiscal sights under Dubya and Cheney.

They wrote codes which were giveaways to the wealthiest.

Then Trump wrote codes which borrowed extra trillions for new tax giveaways, and now trillions more for MORE tax giveaways, so much so, they've got to slash Medicaid, and eventually, Medicare and Social Security DUE TO SEQUESTRATION RULES.

Meanwhile, Trump is giving more to Argentina this year than all the slashed TrumpCare xsubsidies would cost.

" Mandates push more money into the system...but...continually escalating costs (cost drivers) pull it right back out into the pockets of insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and many more."

Not true at all. It's like you don't understand the underlying math.

A mandate adds more money from younger and healthier subscribers. Add that to the 80% rule (if reinstated), and pressure on rates is downward, not upward.

It's what UHC countries do, through their tax systems rather than individual purchases. They also cut A LOT of middlemen costs out.

But UHC countries spend a lower percentage of their GDP, for a larger percentage of populace covered, with better measurable results.

The US could learn a thing or two.

" The US government has stopped even pretending to act fiscally responsible."

Republicans hold the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives.

Do you blame Republicans?