Republican President-elect Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump embrace on Nov. 9, as he stands next to wife, Melania Trump, while Jared Kushner and Tiffany Trump look on. There’s nothing odd about the founders of a health insurance company writing policy proposals after an election where the winner campaigned relentlessly on ending Obamacare. And Wednesday morning, Mario Schlosser and Josh Kushner, the founders of Oscar, a healthcare startup that sells insurance on the state exchanges Obamacare created, did just that. They say they want more competition in the insurance industry, and they think allowing individuals to buy healthcare plans with pre-tax dollars would make that happen. Oscar’s founders also expressed openness to ideas Republicans have floated in the past. What’s interesting in this case is that Kushner is the brother of Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of President-elect Donald Trump. Jared Kushner is also serving on the executive committee of the presidential transition, and could potentially take a senior job in the White House. Venture capitalist and Facebook board member Peter Thiel, who also sits on the executive committee of the presidential transition, is also an investor in Oscar. A spokeswoman for Josh Kushner and Oscar declined to comment beyond his blog post. Spokespeople for Thiel and the Trump transition did not return requests for comment. Anti-nepotism laws bar Kushner from taking a paid job in the White House, though he is exploring getting around that rule by taking an unpaid role advising his father-in-law, The New York Times reports. On the campaign trail, Trump railed against Obamacare and promised to replace it with something better ― though he never said what his alternative was exactly. He told The Wall Street Journal last week that he may try the virtually impossible task of keeping popular parts of the law, like allowing children to stay on their parents’ plans into their 20s and barring insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions, while still reducing costs. But in all likelihood, any changes a Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress make would be far more favorable to insurance companies. That would create the potential for a conflict of interest ― or in the very least, the appearance of one ― if Oscar were a run-of-the-mill health insurance company. But the potential is amplified due to the fact that Oscar was started for the express purpose of making money on the state exchanges for individual insurance. Oscar sells insurance through its website and app directly to individuals who aren’t covered by employer insurance or a government program. Individuals who aren’t covered are required to buy insurance or pay a penalty under what is called the individual mandate. The federal government partially subsidizes the plans that Oscar sells. Precisely how big that subsidy depends on the type of plan and how much money the person buying it makes. Federal conflict of interest rules say executive branch employees can’t make decisions that affect their family’s finances. That […]
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