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One of the most damning criticisms of Donald Trump thus far has been his failure to take on more of a leadership role over “Trumpcare.”

While Obama often didn’t seem to want legislators to even read his Obamacare proposal, Trump seemed content to delegate the role of crafting Trumpcare to Republicans in Congress, claiming he was waiting with pen in hand, prodding them to create a bill he could sign, but not actually writing a bill himself.

Thus far, leaving such a huge job to professional politicians — even to the politicians within his own party — has been like herding cats.

Today, however, Trump has announced through his Twitter account a more pro-active tactic to get Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare. And this new route will be decidedly less carrot and a whole lot more stick.

If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

Although Congress’ love of pork is well-documented, it is Trump’s threat to end insurance company bailouts that will not go unnoticed.

As reported in the National Review in June of 2016, “the Obama administration…set in train an unholy trinity of bailouts that could pay health-insurance companies $170.8 billion in the coming decade.”

These bailouts are intended to compensate insurers for the massive losses they incur under Obamacare. Covering people with pre-existing conditions, for example, is, as one might imagine, not the most profitable business strategy an insurer could take.

Yet even with the government’s help, many insurers are struggling with huge losses and are continuing to pull out of Obamacare exchanges.

Not surprisingly, as the Free Beacon reports, “Next year, there will be 1,332 counties in the United States that will only have one health insurer operating on the Obamacare exchanges.”

As Bloomberg once pointed out in August of 2016:

“The four biggest U.S. health insurers admit they’re each losing hundreds of millions of dollars on their Obamacare plans. Rather than expand coverage, many are pulling out of the exchanges that were set up by [Obamacare] so people can shop for insurance plans, often with the help of government subsidies.”

If Trump were to end bailouts completely, it’s doubtful many insurers could survive.

Therefore, it will be interesting to see what effect Trump’s threat to end insurance company bailouts will have, particularly with members of Congress.

Many on the right side of the aisle like Senator Rand Paul favor ending insurance company bailouts, arguing that keeping insurers dependent on these bailouts will inevitably lead to a government-run, single-payer system.

It’s for that reason that many on the left favor maintaining insurance company bailouts.

It would seem to follow that Trump’s threat is targeted at Democrats in order to spur them to cooperate with Obamacare repeal and replace measures.

Given the Democrats’ intransigence on this issue, however, it would be remarkable if this threat proves to be effective.

[Note: This post was written by dk of African American Conservatives.
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