Trump will replace ACA with HSAs (Healthcare Savings Accounts).

[Ilsa]

It hasn't occurred to him tha most people aren't able to set aside $1000 a month to manage their out of pocket expenses.

Nothing about mandatory coverage for pre-existing conditions.

No cost controls on insurance companies or providers.

He's clueless. So fucking clueless.

[JoePhilly]

1. He's banking on his supporters being to dumb to understand how HSAs work.

And he is right.

[beaglelover]

2. I was thinking the same thing as I listened to his speech this morning on the drive to work.

His health plan was very short on details other than him repeating health savings accounts over and over again. Is the gov't going to contribute anything into the HSA every year or is it all up to the individual to save his money? How much can you put in tax free each year? What about pre-existing conditions or kids up to the age of 26 staying on their parents' policies??? He was also reading from the prompter since he knows NOTHING about O'care, and he sounded like a walking zombie and VERY VERY VERY low energy. Believe me!!

[dhol82]

3. He probably expects his supporters to do bake sales to pay for their child's cancer treatment

What a brain dead fuck!

[dawg]

6. Well, around here, you just put their picture on lots of glass jars ...

cut slots in the lids, and put the jars in all the convenience stores so people can chip in with their spare change.

When I see one of those, I get the strangest feeling of being both proud and ashamed of my country at the same time.

[dhol82]

13. That has always bothered me

For gosh sake, kids should have medical coverage.
Everybody should have medical coverage but it just gets annoying when you see those glass jars. Government is supposed to help in times of distress.

This pie in the sky health savings account is ridiculous. If you have two parents working minimum wage there is no way they can put away enough money to pay for major medical care. Hell, it's barely enough to just pay for routine care.

[dawg]

14. Even the $100,000 a year crowd can't afford to adequately reserve for health emergencies.

A relatively "normal" mid-life procedure can run upwards of $250,000. No normal family can prepare for that.

[dhol82]

15. Exactly!

[Ilsa]

25. If Trump walked by he'd put a fake $1,000,000 bill in them.

I hope you know the story behind that and how one woman said she was embarassed to be of the same species as trump after he did that.

[Willie Pep]

4. Great point.

Healthcare reforms without cost controls are not going to work. Trump is talking nonsense as usual.

[Elmergantry]

31. Healthcare Reform

without cost control is what ACA was/is. And it has turned out to be the disaster I thought it would be.

[LonePirate]

5. HSAs are nothing but con jobs. No wonder Trump supports them.

[democrattotheend]

19. I disagree

I actually think HSA's are less of a con job than insurance premiums, because you only pay for what you use and don't have to line the insurance company's pockets with premiums just in case you get sick. If you end up being healthy the money you pay in premiums goes right down the drain, as the premiums only cover you for a set period. You could pay into a plan for 30 years and never use it, but if you fail to pay your premium on time you are SOL if you get sick.

With an HSA, you get to roll the money over from year to year. You can also use it to pay for things like over the counter medicine that insurance doesn't cover.

However, HSA's are not a good solution by themselves for most people. Most people combine an HSA with a high deductible plan. I would like to see the rules change to allow them to be paired with lower deductible plans as well, since the out of pocket costs between deductibles and co-pays are still pretty high even on silver and gold plans.

[jberryhill]

20. Have you ever had one?

I got suckered in by that nonsense for a couple of years.

[democrattotheend]

38. My mom does

She has been happy with it so far, or at least she was last time we talked about it.

Why were you unhappy with it?

[Ilsa]

26. They don't provide much benefit to alot of people

in nominal tax brackets, though. If there was a matching to it, it would help tremendously, but still not solve the problem of cost control, or even having discretionary income. How much will someone making $32,000/yr be able to accumulate with typical bills?

[Skittles]

28. um

Beginning in early 2011 over-the-counter medications cannot be paid with an HSA without a doctor's prescription.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_savings_account

[Wounded Bear]

7. Repubs have been pushing this bullshit for years and years...

works great for folks that make 100k plus per year. Meanwhile, more than half the population is trying to build a meaningful HSA at $5-10/month. Great, I guess, if you have 30 years to save up.

[budkin]

8. HSAs are shit

Please God no.

[Ilsa]

24. I don't mind there being HSAs, but to rely on them solely

for affordability, effectiveness, availability, and adequacy is simply stupid beyond all measure. Silverspoon Donny doesn't get it.

And the tax savings means nothing to most people. Yeah, we end up paying a recovery tax on the savings we didn't use precisely that year, but so what. At least a little is available to cover my deductibles that restart in January.

The amount of the next year's deductible should be subtracted from the HSA for tax purposes, IMO.

[dawg]

9. Well, if they'd just cut down on their Starbucks addiction and vacation domestically ...

ugh!

The difference between the haves and have-nots in this country is shameful. And many of them don't even understand how heartless they truly are.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

10. He said he wants people to be able to buy health insurance across state lines.

[dawg]

12. Which results in a race to the bottom where all state insurance regulations become invalid ...

except for the worst one, where all the insurance companies will "relocate".

[Ilsa]

29. Exactly, just like what happened to the credit card industry.

If you had a problem, you could contact a state regulator. Now you have to talk to someone in South Dakota while you're in Florida. The regulators can't possibly coverall of them, so they become useless. Makes it easy to dispose of all regulators.

[LenaBaby61]

11. And don't forget about ....

rescission and life-time caps.

[skylucy]

16. Gee. Telling people to put money in the bank in case they get sick. Who would have

thought of that? Except one major illness, hospitalization etc. and you clean out your savings and still cannot pay the bill. I cannot believe ANYBODY buys this BS. So it would be tax-exempt. Big F-ing deal. Are Trump and the Repubs really that clueless? I don't think so. They are just betting that their supporters are.

[Ilsa]

30. The guy who said "Jew-S-A" bought it.

So did the father, kids in tow, wearing a t-shirt calling Hillary a c*@#.

I wish we could convince those people that they are too stupid to cast a vote.

[JI7]

45. no they didn't. They are voting based on hating minorities and women

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

21. He doesn't give a fuck because he doesn't understand the meaning of what

he's reading.

[Tanuki]

22. He's hoping more people will have to sell their homes to pay off medical debt, and people like him

can make a killing scooping them up at below market value...just the same as he was rooting for people to lose their homes in the mortgage crisis several years ago.

[Agnosticsherbet]

32. And a thousand a month would not cover an emergency,

Even for people wbo can afford it. A blood test for an uninsured patient averages $1,500.00.
A five day stay in the hospital is $10,000.00
So tell me how Healthcare Savings Accounts will work.

[Ilsa]

44. Oh, i know. I just threw the number out there.

Other replies explain that they only work as supplemental self-funding for people using most or all of their deductible and with frequent copays for everything.

[matt819]

33. Okay

Let's say you take your ACA premium and put it into an HSA. For me that's $9,600 a year. If my medical costs are less than that, great. If I'm on a car accident or develop cancer, well, fuck me, I'm a dead man, or alive one with s mountain of unpayable debt.

Look, I'm not happy with my premiums, but hsa or FDA don't work. And it's s big fuck you to all middle class Americans. Plus it's s thoughtless cop-out of s policy.

[Demsrule86]

34. Even if you could, I was in the hospital for five days

earlier in the month...30,000 dollars...I knew his 'great' health care was bullshit.

[stopbush]

35. 26% of adult Americans have ZERO savings.

The average savings for milennials is NEGATIVE 2%.

The average American has less than $5000 in the bank, and that includes checking accounts.

The savings rate for the average American is 4.4%, down from over 10% in 2012.

Yeah - HSAs sound like a natural for the average American.

[Ms. Toad]

36. HSAs do nothing to address people with chronic illnesses

Our out of pocket billed costs top $60,000 every year. We can't roll over to build up for a bad year.

My effective tax rate last year was 3%. So I might get a $360 break on those costs (which, without insurance will be due at the billed rate). That's more than my take-home pay, once mandatory retirement deductions are taken out.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

43. But can't they borrow a few thousand from their parents?

[annabanana]

46. Su-u-ure.. Put a couple of bucks away every week.. Triple Bypass?

no problem

v