OBAMA/TRUMPCARE MEGATHREAD

[Soxbadger]

The Republicans are in such a corner here, there's no way to really win. This new plan does nothing to lower overall costs to taxpayers, is harder on the poor and the elderly, and will see insurance go away for millions. You've got a conservative group who think even that is too close to ACA, and moderates who see the opposite, all in the same party. Compromise would mean, essentially, sticking with ACA.

 

What is the winning scenario here for the GOP in Congress? And for Trump? How do they lower costs without throwing a ton of people out of coverge?

 

There is no true winning scenario. Their "best" case scenario is for the bill to pass House, die in Senate by a close vote. That way they can still blame "Obama/Democrats" and claim that they had a magical solution, if only the Democrats would have supported it.

 

The best case scenario for Americans is that the Republican's drop the nonsensical "repeal" and instead focus on "improving" Obamacare. Theoretically Obamacare is going to fix itself as premiums/costs stabilize, so the Republican's could take credit for "fixing" it without really doing much.

 

Problem is that so many of them ran on unsupportable platforms that they are unwilling to do this.

[Kyyle23]

[Soxbadger]

Trump looking out for the tanning salons. Someone's getting a free lifetime membership to LA tan.

[caulfield12]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/medicare-ins...WQDBHNlYwNzcg--

 

Medicare insolvency to move up from 2025 to 2023 under AHCA.

[StrangeSox]

House has scheduled the vote for this admoniation of a bill for next Thursday. House Freedom Caucus still opposes it.

 

https://twitter.com/freedomcaucus/status/842763614004109314

 

I have to give credit to McConnell for somehow always being able to duck these s***storms. Even during the campaign, the stories were always about Ryan's on-again, off-again relationship with Trump. He'll dodge another big bullet if this thing fails in the House.

 

e: I guess they're now talking about editing the bill to block-grant Medicaid (i.e. substantial long-term funding cuts) and add a work requirement to the program (unemployed? no healthcare for you!) to appeal to the House Death Cult Freedom Caucus. This will make it that much harder to pass in the Senate, though.

Edited March 17, 2017 by StrangeSox

[bmags]

Yeah McConnell has some pretty smooth moves, he also only picked up the houses slack when necessary in the debt ceiling debacles. It will catch up eventually, though. Senate will need passage, it will be hard to reconcile house bill, will probably need a new one.

[StrangeSox]

Trump supporters love Obamacare so much they think it's Trump's plan.

 

NASHVILLE — Soon after Charla McComic’s son lost his job, his health-insurance premium dropped from $567 per month to just $88, a “blessing from God” that she believes was made possible by President Trump.

 

“I think it was just because of the tax credit,” said McComic, 52, a former first-grade teacher who traveled to Trump’s Wednesday night rally in Nashville from Lexington, Tenn., with her daughter, mother, aunt and cousin.

 

The price change was actually thanks to a subsidy made possible by former president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which is still in place, not by the tax credits proposed by Republicans as part of the health-care bill still being considered by Congress.

 

McComic said she’s not worried about her disability benefits changing or her 3-year-old granddaughter getting kicked off Medicaid or her 33-year-old son’s premiums going up.

 

“So far, everything’s been positive, from what I can tell,” she said, waiting for Trump’s rally here to begin Wednesday night. “I just hope that more and more people and children get covered under this new health-care plan.”

 

McComic says she has never trusted a president the way she trusts Trump. Ahead of the election, she and her relatives turned their cars into a “Trump train” and drove across Lexington, waving flags and shouting: “Trump! Trump! Vote for Trump!”

 

Ware is a landscaper and often works near Section 8 housing in the Nashville area, and she becomes furious when she sees residents who “drive better cars than I do, they have weaves and hair color better than I can, they have manicures.” As Ware, who is white, waited in line for the rally to start, a group of young African American protesters walked by, and she yelled at them, “Go cash your welfare checks!”

 

“He gets penalized on his income taxes, while these people that don’t know how to pull their pants up can go get it for free,” said Ware, whose employer covers the full cost of her health care. “Make it even. Make it balanced.”

 

Ware hopes that Trump can change this, although she says she won’t fault him if he can’t. She doesn’t believe news reports saying that 24 million people could lose their coverage under his plan.

 

“Nothing is in concrete yet. Give the man a chance,” she said. “Until you hear it from Donald J. Trump himself — and not the news media — then don’t even worry about it. Wait until you hear the man say it, because he will tweet it, he will Facebook it or he will go onto national television and tell everybody at the same time.”

[Dick Allen]

Trump supporters love Obamacare so much they think it's Trump's plan.

Pretty scary the woman was a teacher.

 

And the other one, just wow.

Edited March 17, 2017 by Dick Allen

[StrangeSox]

Adam Cancryn‏

@adamcancryn

 

House Speaker Paul Ryan to Rich Lowry on capping Medicaid funding: "We’ve been dreaming of this since you and I were drinking out of a keg"

[StrangeSox]

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/sahilkapur/statu...136061844918273

 

Meanwhile, the Republican plan has 34% approval

 

https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/842135823340384256

Edited March 18, 2017 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

Your Obamacare repeal tax savings in one depressing chart

 

[bmags]

Would they really hold a vote if it fails?

[Soxfest]

Until you add selling insurance across state lines their is no savings for insured. Bill as it is today is a bad bill.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Soxfest

[StrangeSox]

Insurance across state lines means we all "save" money by every insurer rushing to the state with the most lax laws and offering the worst coverage.

 

If you like your plan, too bad nearly every single one in the country will be cancelled and rewritten in worse terms.

[Dick Allen]

Insurance across state lines is a BS talking point. It won't freaking matter. They would have to set up networks in every state. How long that would take and how much it would cost would certainly eat into any of the "competitive savings" the right tries to mention. I think there is actually a provision in Obamacare for companies to cross state lines and not one company has done so.I also think some states have made it legal and yet no takers.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Dick Allen

[StrangeSox]

That would be the point though, they wouldn't need to set up different networks because they could just set up in whichever state has the worst regulations and then sell policies in all fifty states from there. Same reason pretty much all credit card are from South Dakota or Delaware: they have the most favorable usury laws.

[Dick Allen]

That would be the point though, they wouldn't need to set up different networks because they could just set up in whichever state has the worst regulations and then sell policies in all fifty states from there. Same reason pretty much all credit card are from South Dakota or Delaware: they have the most favorable usury laws.

They have to set up their networks of doctors and make deals with them. If it would help anyone, it would help the young and healthy, anyone else, no way.

 

The mechanism is in place right now for companies to do this at least on a small scale, and not one has shown any motivation

 

It's the next trickle down economics. Just a bunch of BS..

Edited March 22, 2017 by Dick Allen

[StrangeSox]

Deductibles will increase an average of ~$1500 under the GOP bill

 

 

I still do not understand why they're pushing this so hard. Yeah yeah, big tax cuts for millionaires, but that can be accomplished without intentionally killing poor people (the end result of their gutting of Medicaid) and blowing up the health insurance market.

[Dick Allen]

Deductibles will increase an average of ~$1500 under the GOP bill

 

 

I still do not understand why they're pushing this so hard. Yeah yeah, big tax cuts for millionaires, but that can be accomplished without intentionally killing poor people (the end result of their gutting of Medicaid) and blowing up the health insurance market.

It's being replaced with something terrific. Cheaper rates, lower deductibles, better care for everyone. Everything else is fake.

 

Why isn't anyone grilling Trump on this and his promises it's reported he has kept? How is this bill anywhere near what he promised, yet he calls it great. Using his line, he's a total disaster. An embarrassment.

 

 

 

“I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me,” Trump tweeted in 2015, following up with: “Huckabee is a nice guy but will never be able to bring in the funds so as not to cut Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. I will.”

 

He doubled down and kept doubling down, a month later tweeting, “The Republicans who want to cut SS & Medicaid are wrong. A robust economy will Make America Great Again!”

 

Within the first 70 days days of his presidency, Trump has followed through on another campaign promise, dismantling Obamacare, by promoting a repeal bill. However, the pursuit of that goal has led him to break his promises to fully protect Medicare and Medicaid. The repeal bill makes significant cuts to Medicaid coverage and shrinks Medicare funding.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Dick Allen

[Rex Kickass]

Insurance across state lines is a BS talking point. It won't freaking matter. They would have to set up networks in every state. How long that would take and how much it would cost would certainly eat into any of the "competitive savings" the right tries to mention. I think there is actually a provision in Obamacare for companies to cross state lines and not one company has done so.I also think some states have made it legal and yet no takers.

 

There's nothing stopping insurance companies from doing this now... they just have to ensure that the policy coincides with each state's regulations for coverage.

[StrangeSox]

Freedom Caucus demanding that funding for mental health and maternal Care be cut in exchange for their votes.

 

https://twitter.com/JoanAlker1/status/844697870074871809

 

Remember, their eternal deflection whenever someone kills a bunch of people with a gun is "mental health!"

 

We're run by a death cult.

[StrangeSox]

The latest health care cut Republicans are weighing, explained

http://www.vox.com/2017/3/22/15030214/esse...-reconciliation

 

. Key to the deal, they report, are changes to the law that would eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s “essential health benefits,” a list of 10 categories of procedure that all insurance plans offered to individuals or small businesses must cover. The 10 are, in the words of Healthcare.gov:

 

Outpatient care without a hospital admission, known as ambulatory patient services

Emergency services

Hospitalization

Pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care

Mental health and substance use disorder services, including counseling and psychotherapy

Prescription drugs

Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices, which help people with injuries and disabilities to recover

Laboratory services

Preventive care, wellness services, and chronic disease management

Pediatric services, including oral and vision care for children

 

 

 

[caulfield12]

The latest health care cut Republicans are weighing, explained

http://www.vox.com/2017/3/22/15030214/esse...-reconciliation

 

 

Isn't the change where they're not cutting, but providing (for example) people over 50 an opportunity to buy cheaper insurance that doesn't provide maternity/pediatric care?

 

One of the issues with the ACA was the fact that everyone had to buy the same package, whether they needed those various coverages or not (like the seniors not needing maternity/pediatric care)...

 

Of course, the argument against this is an obvious one. If you're allowed to pick and choose whatever you need specifically and throw everything else out, it raises the premiums for everyone else because the costs of providing services in those areas can't be borne only by those affected by having a baby or getting sick. That's pretty much the whole purpose of insurance, nobody actually WANTS to buy it, whether it's for their car or house or whatever, and we don't expect to get all the money we pay into the system back in the form of benefits, because no private insurance market can survive paying out more benefits than it receives in premiums.

 

Because that 55-64 age group was going to be totally screwed under the AHCA, in the last 24-48 hours they're apparently looking to provide more subsidies to counterbalance the huge rate increases and/or obscuring the argument by attempting to get rid of a lot of the medical services covered under ACA to make it seem like seniors theoretically might be getting at least a semi "decent" (probably not better, though) deal under the new Ryan health care plan.

 

 

 

Trump asked King why he couldn’t vote for the bill. King responded he didn’t think it would lower insurance premiums enough. But King then floated a potential deal to Trump: If the president would publicly back amending the bill to deregulate the health care industry, King would change his vote.

 

Trump agreed, and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) picked up a desperately needed vote.

 

With one day to go until the biggest vote of his brief presidency, Trump is using all the trappings of his office to try to clinch the needed 215 votes. It’s unclear whether it will be enough to save the legislation. But late Wednesday, the White House floated a major change to the bill in a bid to win over roughly three dozen House conservatives. It was over the same issue King had raised in the White House meeting earlier in the day.

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trum...-debacle-236380

 

Yeah, like Trump's actually going to deregulate the health care industry...I can't believe Steve King is a real person.

Edited March 23, 2017 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

Freedom Caucus demanding that funding for mental health and maternal Care be cut in exchange for their votes.

 

https://twitter.com/JoanAlker1/status/844697870074871809

 

Remember, their eternal deflection whenever someone kills a bunch of people with a gun is "mental health!"

 

We're run by a death cult.

 

Removing the provision could also greatly weaken the law's protection of those with pre-existing conditions. Without the requirement to cover comprehensive policies, insurers could opt exclude some of the priciest services that sick Americans need. Carriers would also no longer have to cover annual exams and preventative tests free of charge.

 

House leadership did not originally include it because doing so would likely run afoul of Senate rules governing budget reconciliation, the procedure being used to avoid a Democratic filibuster that Republicans won't be able to break. (Not to mention the whole Planned Parenthood gutting probably won't make it past the Senate parliamentarian, either).

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/ess...ucus/index.html

 

It's quite obvious they want a "political win" to get the bill to the Senate and not completely cripple Trump's presidency...they've only succeeded in giving themselves SOME degree of political cover by going on record as voting to repeal ObamaCare, even if, in the process of doing so, they've guaranteed failure of the ultimate bill. So you simply have a repeat of 2010, except this time with zero Democrats voting for the legislation.

And, if you set out to intentionally create a system that would end up DEMONSTRABLY WORSENING the health outcomes of a majority of Americans, this is probably close to what you'd come up with as a result.

[StrangeSox]

The idea of substantially modifying a bill that impacts a big sector of the economy that got barely any scrutiny in the first place less than 24 hours before you've scheduled a vote on it doesn't seem like a good idea.

 

https://twitter.com/fmanjoo/status/844737720953974785

Edited March 23, 2017 by StrangeSox