HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Robert Kingsland will have to pay hundreds of dollars if he goes without insurance next year, even though Congress recently repealed the Affordable Care Act’s penalty for not having coverage. That is because his home state of New Jersey just imposed a fine of its own for letting insurance lapse. In California, Aaron Brown’s small business association likely won’t be able to provide the cheaper health policies promoted by the Trump administration. California banned the creation of many associations that offer such policies. Across the country, the details vary but the story is the same. The Trump administration has been rolling back sections of the Obama-era health law piece by piece. And states are filling the void, either to buttress or countermand changes from Washington. The result is that the country is increasingly returning to a pre-ACA landscape, where the coverage you get, especially for people without employer-provided insurance, is largely determined by where you live…The outcome is consistent with President Donald Trump’s goal to dismantle a one-size-fits-all approach of the ACA and leave decisions about many health-policy issues to the states. Many Republicans say that is a better approach because states have specific challenges better handled locally, and can also be a laboratory for new ideas.”
–Stephanie Armour, “Health-Care Coverage Is Increasingly Determined by Where You Live,” The Wall Street Journal, July 18, 2018 1:02 pm