The Fate of the ACA in the Trump Administration

We now have Trump saying, “Trump told the Wall Street Journal in a Friday interview that he wants to keep the prohibition against insurers denying coverage because of patients pre-existing medical conditions, and allow children to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until they’re 26.”

This will, of course, probably destroy the individual health insurance market, or at least make it very much more expensive. But the ACA is profitable for a wealthy industry, and this may protect it. When all is said and done we may be more likely to see modest changes to the ACA (I am guessing a relaxation of the MLR limits) and modest cuts to Medicare (or possibly a greater push for privatization), sold, respectively, as “repeal and replace” and “improvements/Obama’s fault.”

(Edited for clarity the following day.)