Attention to orders

Republican presidents can sign orders, too

“The health care debate is not over. Conservatives are still fighting for free-market reforms to the health care system.”

—Rand Paul

WELL, WE suppose Senator Rand Paul might mean it. It would have been better if he hadn’t abandoned his party when it mattered, like the last time it tried to repeal and replace Obamacare. The senator from Kentucky ended up being one of the three GOP votes against repeal—because, according to Mr. Paul, that last-ditch Republican bill didn’t repeal enough to suit him. In this matter, small steps didn’t concern him before, only when there was a Republican in the White House and his vote really counted.

Let’s hope Sen. Paul can rise above his principles, not to mention his purity, in votes to come. We’ll just have to take his word for it. For now.

In the above statement, Sen. Paul was talking about the executive orders that president signed Thursday that might lower the price of health insurance for Americans. It’s an advantage of having a Republican president just now. President Trump found out that repealing and replacing Obamacare wasn’t an “easy” step that could be completed “on day one,” and that most things in Washington can’t be changed by one man. Not to mention that “I alone can fix it” is a terrible campaign promise.

But the president has now signed executive orders that might could get around certain provisions of Obamacare, such as the rules against selling insurance across state lines. Interstate sales could expand options for consumers, increase competition, and maybe even lower costs. As competition tends to do. It’ll all shake out in time.

The orders could also ease other Obamacare rules—and allow individuals, small businesses, even unions to band together to buy insurance, through arrangements called Association Health Plans. Even your church or local community organization could join together to buy health insurance, and possibly save you money.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners—to nobody’s surprise—has long opposed these association plans. That’s because that outfit represents state regulators, and removing state regulations takes away business. That is, regulations that they impose. And, the NAIC says, allowing groups to band together in this way “could actually increase the cost of insurance for many small businesses whose employees are not members of an association health plan.”

Then let them join one.

An executive order of this kind will allow companies, unions, trade associations, etc., to band together not only for health insurance but fire insurance, auto insurance, earthquakes, comet strikes . . . .

FOR THE record, let us note that state regulations add to the costs for everybody. And state regulators are complaining about these associations? Remember Obamacare’s “10 Essential Health Benefits” that led to folks paying for all kinds of things they didn’t want? Such as birth control for an unmarried 50-year-old man? Arkansas, like most other states, has its own list, and we understand there are more than 20 of these services that insurance companies must include in any insurance plan offered in Arkansas. According to the state, its mandated benefits include such things as dental anesthesia, diabetic supplies, maternity coverage, and the list goes on. All those things are good, but what if a body doesn’t want them? This is, or should be, a free country.

The president might be disappointed, as many of us were, in the failure to repeal and replace Obamacare. But he might take heart that he did something to lower insurance costs on his own. His executive order on this matter is a good, if small, first step.