Individual states began looking into plans that pared back basic coverage, and some of them made a run at providing cheap plans that skirted many of the fundamental Obamacare rules on coverage, including protection for preexisting conditions.Ī proposal in Idaho, though, proved too much even for the Trump administration. That pulled one large block from the Affordable Care Act tower. Trump won a significant victory in eliminating the tax penalty for individuals who don’t have health insurance. Even with its 2018 losses, the administration has enough allies in governors’ mansions and state legislatures that it can get a lot of what it wants by indirect means.Ĭonsider Obamacare. Gumming up the works at the state level, through administrative actions on many fronts, turns out to be a lot easier than pushing for big legislative changes in Washington, where Congress is often gridlocked. Instead of engaging in a direct federal-level attack on big policies with major legislation, Trump’s team is pushing more decisions to the states. But after a rocky start, Team Trump has finally figured out that it can get much of what it wants through a kind of Jenga federalism. Those challenges had precious little to show for themselves, except for the passage of the tax cut a year ago. In its first months, the administration lobbed one legislative assault after another on Obama-era policy, but mostly failed to make much difference. It’s a game of skill and cunning: How much can you destabilize the tower without taking a big swing and knocking it down in a single blow? It’s a game that the Trump administration has learned to play with remarkable skill. For the uninitiated, it’s a game where little blocks stack up to make a tall tower, and where the goal is to pull the blocks out, one by one, from the bottom.
0 kommentar(er)
