GOP/Trumpcare Part 2

Trump: We will produce a terrific health care plan to replce Obamacare and reveal it at an “appropriate time” after the 2020 elections.
English translation: We have no plan, and probably never will.
Me: I think he misspoke. He probably meant the 2120 elections.

Trump: These dolts in the GOP are so stupid. They had 9 years to come up with a plan, and all they have come up with is shxt. With partners like these......

Mitch (softly): This dotard is so stupid. He has been talking for 4 years about his terrific health care plan, and all he has come up with is shxt.

Paul Krugman (in the NYT):

Well, public opinion here is clear: Americans want everyone to have access to health care. There isn’t even that much of a partisan divide: An overwhelming majority of Republicans don’t believe insurance companies should be allowed to deny coverage or charge more to those with pre-existing conditions.

This public near-unanimity is one reason Medicare is so popular. Getting older — and thus joining a group with much higher average health costs than the rest of the population — is, after all, the ultimate pre-existing condition.

But there are only two ways to cover people with pre-existing conditions, and both are anathema to conservative ideology.

One is to have taxpayers pay the bills directly, which is what Medicare does.

The other combines regulation and subsidies. Insurance companies must be prohibited from discriminating based on medical history — a prohibition that must include preventing them from issuing bare-bones policies that will appeal only to those in good health — but that won’t do the job by itself. Healthy people must also be induced to sign up, to provide a good risk pool, which means subsidizing premiums for those with lower incomes and, preferably although not totally necessary, imposing a penalty on those without insurance.

If the second option sounds familiar, it should. It’s what countries like the Netherlands and Switzerland do; it’s also a description of, you guessed it, Obamacare.

———————end of Krugman quote

So it looks like the only way to replace Obamacare (besides even more socialistic solutions) is with Obamacare.

My suggestion: Trump had no problem calling NAFTA the worst deal in history, then changing it 2%, and calling it the greatest deal in history. So similarly, he and the GOP could repeal terrible Obamacare, replace it with Obamacare +/- 2%, and then rebrand it as fantastic Dotardcare, the greatest healthcare in history.

Problem is - only other dotards may buy that......