This is one of the more disingenuous threads I've seen lately. Apparently no one actually watched the tape. I did and also saw this live. Here is what you missed:
In answering a specific question about pre-existing conditions:
The mandate Mr. Trump likes is the mandate that pre-existing conditions cannot be excluded from coverage----AND ONLY the mandate that pre-existing conditions cannot be excluded from coverage.
Are we all clear now?
I agree - I heard the interview too, and Trump appeared to favor the ACA's core reform of mandating that insurance companies issue policies without regard to an individual's pre-existing conditions. This is known as "guaranteed issue".
The problem, of course, is that insurance companies cannot make money with guaranteed issue without either (i) raising rates to unaffordable levels, or (ii) expanding the insurance pool so there are enough healthy lives to offset the unhealthy lives flock to be insured under guaranteed issue. That's where the individual mandate is supposed to come in. On pain of paying a tax, individuals are encouraged to join the pool. You hardly need such an incentive if you're sick. You may very well need such an incentive if you're healthy and either consider yourself bulletproof (like a lot of young folks) or have the means to "self-finance" you health care. What's killing the ACA is the individual mandate isn't working to get enough healthy lives into the individual insurance marketplace. Folks rationally decide to pay the tax rather than buy health insurance they can't afford*.
And THAT's the big lie of the "Affordable Care Act". It was never designed to make health insurance more affordable. It's intent is to expand access. It's critical flaw is that it stifles competition in the individual marketplace by forcing insurers to provide only gold-plated insurance that covers, among other things, prescription drugs, mental health treatment, preventive services of all kinds including, notoriously, contraceptives, maternity care and a host of other services that many folks, if they had the choice, would choose to forego. But they can't in the ACA marketplace - plans compete not on the host of services covered - they must all be comprehensive, bloated plans - but on the amount of co-pays and deductibles (the so-called bronze, silver, gold and platinum plans).
It's insane. Many folks would like the option of getting health insurance for the purpose for which insurance is traditionally intended - to guard against catastrophe. Not to pay for check-ups and other routine, predictable stuff. What auto insurance policy covers oil changes? You pay for that stuff yourself. But the nanny state refuses to trust individuals to take care of their own health without resort to "free" or almost free routine services. And that drives up the cost of insurance to unaffordable levels, so folks have little choice but to pay the tax.
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*(footnote): The fact that the mandate was set so low in relation to the cost of purchasing individual insurance is why Justice Roberts concluded the mandate was a Constitutional tax, rather than an unConstitutional compulsion. It's perfectly voluntary, and millions are proving that every day, by rationally deciding to pay the tax.
