Healthcare going forward

[Stardreamer]

NYT seems to have put forward a fairly good examination of what the Republican plan is here.

Ultimately, Republicans are counting on Democrats to step in and help repair what even Republicans anticipate as upheaval if a repeal measure is passed without a broad remake of American health care.

Republican leaders have made no effort to hide the strategy. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan spoke at length this past week about a three-stage effort: First, with only Republican votes, repeal major parts of the health law and put in place some new provisions. Second, let Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price use regulatory powers to try to stabilize insurance markets. Third, pressure Democrats to help with a series of bills to complete the replacement and change the health care system more to the liking of conservatives.

Republicans are faced that with the narrow majorities they have they simply cannot repeal and replace the ACA in a meaningful way without the Democrats help. The tool of reconciliation is simply not up to the job. So reading between the lines of Ryan's three step plan this is what you find:
1. Dynamite the financial foundations of the ACA using reconciliation to eliminate the individual mandate and replace it with a plan that actually discourages healthy individuals out of the market. Eliminate many of the taxes. Keep pre-existing conditions and delay dismantling medicaid until after the mid-terms ( if that doesn't say politics what does). This essentially pulls the financial rug out from under healthcare.
2. HOPE that HHS can hold the crumbling disaster together long enough to get to three.
3. HOPE Democrats will be real politic enough at this point to come save the Republican's bacon and help them craft a bipartisan bill that gives us a healthcare plan that conservatives can live with.
4. Claim victory.

The problem being if Democrats are the evil self serving types the right thinks they are they have absolutely no reason to help with three. It is already too late for the Republicans to step back and let the Democrats take the blame as Trump suggests, after his EO at least some of the mess is going to splash onto them. But if Trumpcare part I passes the Republicans will OWN healthcare and the resulting collapse will be all theirs. Trump and Ryan are saying if this doesn't pass the Republicans will be ruined but I am thinking they will be even more ruined if it does pass.

 

[Benvolio]

ACA is collapsing from its inherent flaws. If democrats will not support the GOP plan, ACA will collapse and the blame woll fall on democrats for their recalcitrance. .

 

[gsdx]

Hospitals worry about caring for newly uninsured in GOP plan
[The Canadian Press]
The Canadian PressMarch 12, 2017
Hospitals worry about caring for newly uninsured in GOP plan

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — When Colorado expanded Medicaid coverage under former President Barack Obama's health care law, the largest provider in the Denver region hired more than 250 employees and built a $27 million primary care clinic and two new school-based clinics.

Emergency rooms visits stayed flat as Denver Health Medical Center directed many of the nearly 80,000 newly insured patients into one of its 10 community health centres , where newly hired social workers and mental health therapists provided services for some of the county's poorest residents. Demand for services at the new primary care clinic was almost immediate.

The hospital system, like others around the country, now is facing enormous uncertainty under the health care overhaul proposed by congressional Republicans.

The GOP plan would scale back the Medicaid expansion and take away direct federal subsidies to help consumers pay their health insurance premiums, replacing them with age-adjusted tax credits.

<snip>

"We are likely looking at situations where hospitals would close down service lines, shorten clinic hours and lay off staff," said Beth Feldpush, a senior vice-president at America's Essential Hospitals.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/hospitals-worry-caring-newly-uninsured-154009410.html

Of course, if Trumpcare (even Republicans are calling it that) fails, Trump has a back-up plan: Blame the Democrats.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/tr...rats-if-trumpcare-goes-down-in-flames-report/

 

[Stardreamer]

ACA is collapsing from its inherent flaws. If democrats will not support the GOP plan, ACA will collapse and the blame woll fall on democrats for their recalcitrance. .

Too late for that, if the Republicans wanted to keep their hands clean they shouldn't have started meddling, once Trump signed his EO the Republicans lost their only real chance to stay clean of it. Even then they had dirt on their hands for the sabotage they had already done.

 

[gsdx]

These are a few of the people who voted for Trump that are now regretting their decision. They realise now that they have been 'Trumped'.

http://www.gopocalypse.org/trump-supporters-tweet-their-regrets-after-trumpcare-is-rolled-out/

 

[Benvolio]

Too late for that, if the Republicans wanted to keep their hands clean they shouldn't have started meddling, once Trump signed his EO the Republicans lost their only real chance to stay clean of it. Even then they had dirt on their hands for the sabotage they had already done.

You forget. The Republicans were elected on a promise to end Obamacare. .

 

[Stardreamer]

You forget. The Republicans were elected on a promise to end Obamacare. .

And if they screw it up royally that won't matter one bit.

 

[Kulindahr]

These are a few of the people who voted for Trump that are now regretting their decision. They realise now that they have been 'Trumped'.

http://www.gopocalypse.org/trump-supporters-tweet-their-regrets-after-trumpcare-is-rolled-out/

They're finding out what in-depth polls showed all along: the reason many Americans didn't like the ACA was that it was a system rigged to make money for the insurance companies and thus had high deductibles and high premiums. The way to go to make Americans happy was not to make that situation worse!

 

[Kulindahr]

You forget. The Republicans were elected on a promise to end Obamacare. .

No, they were elected because the Democrat running for president was the least trusted candidate ever.

And even of they were, they're suffering from failing to read the rest of the sentence, so to speak: a huge number of those who opposed the ACA did so not because they wanted a system where the rich get rewarded and the poor are cut out and penalized (at the profit of the insurance companies) but because the ACA was still sending far too much money to profits and not enough to actually care for people.

Medical insurance companies have been hated for a long time because they do so well at figuring out how to avoid paying for medical care. The ACA didn't do enough to correct that; now the GOP wants to make it even worse rather than better.

 

[rareboy]

You forget. The Republicans were elected on a promise to end Obamacare. .

Right.

And apparently most of his white, working class base believed Trump when he told them all the lies about what a great plan he'd put in its place and/or they actually didn't think that the Republicans would repeal it...or at least the parts that help them.

And now they have found out that they've been lied to...that TrumpCo. has no plan to put in place and that they are being thrown under the ambulance.



Stupid voters.

 

[gsdx]

I've been trying to find an interview I read where a woman in her 80s with health problems which require regular medication and regular injections totalling over $6,000 per month. Medicaid used to pay a good deal of it. Now they won't. She can't afford it, and she can't afford the insurance premiums.

This is a good thing? This is something to brag about? This is something to defend? This is something to excuse?

What happened to "health insurance for all"?

Donald 'P.T. Barnum' Trump.

 

[rareboy]

They aren't even attempting to sell it.

The Kaiser analysis estimated that a 60-year-old in a rural, Trump-voting West Virginia county, earning $30,000 a year, would face an $8,000 reduction in tax credits under the Republican plan. When reminded of this finding on Sunday, Price said this failed to take into account that the person in question should have more choice under the Republican plan’s marketization.

“Who knows what that 60-year-old wants? I know that the federal government doesn’t know what that 60-year-old wants,” said Price.

Guess what Price.

They want to be able to afford health care.

When they are seriously ill or dying....they aren't going to care that there was greater choice of unaffordable health care available.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/12/republicans-healthcare-reform-tom-price-paul-ryan

 

[rareboy]

Well that was pretty predictable.

TrumpCo. attacking the Congressional Budget Office as it gets ready to release the figures on the impact of Trumpcare on American citizens.

First attack the messenger. Cardinal Rule.

Aides to U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday attacked the credibility of the nonpartisan agency that will analyze the costs of a replacement for Obamacare, as the White House sought to quell opposition from many conservative Republicans.

The Congressional Budget Office, which provides official estimates of the budget impact of proposed legislation, is expected to issue a report as soon as Monday that will assess the healthcare legislation put forward by Republican House of Representatives leaders.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obamacare-idUSKBN16J0XH

 

[TX-Beau]

You're contending that there is no connection between the economies of the reservations and the rest of the state?

I just want to know whether they included it.

Naughty! Don't put words in my mouth just to be contrary!. What do you want to talk about, the contention that nasty injuns are dragging ND down, or the macro and micro economics regarding States of the Union and the BIA management of the Reservation system?

Them goal posts ain't moving no matter how hard you push.

PLUS, Kara has already provided that information as well as where to go look at it.

 

[TX-Beau]

They aren't even attempting to sell it.



Guess what Price.

They want to be able to afford health care.

When they are seriously ill or dying....they aren't going to care that there was greater choice of unaffordable health care available.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/12/republicans-healthcare-reform-tom-price-paul-ryan

That whole tax credit thing is just a scam.

 

[KaraBulut]

No, they were elected because the Democrat running for president was the least trusted candidate ever.

Although, she still got nearly 3 million more votes.

Medical insurance companies have been hated for a long time because they do so well at figuring out how to avoid paying for medical care. The ACA didn't do enough to correct that; now the GOP wants to make it even worse rather than better.

The ACA had a lot of stuff in it to get insurance companies back into the business of paying claims. Two key rules that will get repealed if the Act is repealed:

1. Insurance companies are required to pay out 80% of premiums toward claims. If they don't, they are required to issue partial refunds for the difference.
2. Insurance companies have to explain premium increases in excess of 10% from year to year.

ACA is collapsing from its inherent flaws. If democrats will not support the GOP plan, ACA will collapse and the blame woll fall on democrats for their recalcitrance.

. It is already too late for the Republicans to step back and let the Democrats take the blame as Trump suggests, after his EO at least some of the mess is going to splash onto them.

It's worth mentioning that a significant portion of the Democratic Party wants a public option. During the ACA negotiations, the public option was eliminated as a compromise to get private insurers on board with the legislation.

There's a substantial risk that if the private insurance market fails, it will revive the public option (or Medicare for all) as viable again.

First attack the messenger. Cardinal Rule.

Well, that also fits in with the populist/totalitarian playbook to eliminate all agents of credible opposition. See Putin. See Erdoğan. See Haraszti. See Duterte.

 

[Kulindahr]

I've been trying to find an interview I read where a woman in her 80s with health problems which require regular medication and regular injections totalling over $6,000 per month. Medicaid used to pay a good deal of it. Now they won't. She can't afford it, and she can't afford the insurance premiums.

This is a good thing? This is something to brag about? This is something to defend? This is something to excuse?

What happened to "health insurance for all"?

Donald 'P.T. Barnum' Trump.

So the GOP is playing death panel.

 

[Kulindahr]

It's worth mentioning that a significant portion of the Democratic Party wants a public option. During the ACA negotiations, the public option was eliminated as a compromise to get private insurers on board with the legislation.

There's a substantial risk that if the private insurance market fails, it will revive the public option (or Medicare for all) as viable again.

The GOP ought to be recommending incentives to get not-for-profit organizations such as the Southern Baptist Convention or the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks to offer their own N-f-P insurance, as a market driver to keep prices down. One big reason they probably aren't is that such a move would endanger the for-profit companies.

Indeed, the entire GOP plan seems to be more interested in making sure insurance companies can make profits than in caring for citizens.


BTW, I saw an interesting notion on a rather conservative site: pass a new Militia Act and tie in medical insurance coverage, so everyone who enrolled in an organized, recognized local militia would get medical care just like those in the military do. I like it because it appeals to the majority of Americans who believe the right to keep and bear arms is an individual one, and the idea that those willing to step up and defend their country should be rewarded.

The proposal included a required day of training once each season -- something that would be well worth it if the payoff was medical insurance!

 

[gsdx]

So the GOP is playing death panel.

She's very, very worried about what is going to happen. She simply cannot afford what she needs to stay alive.

Wish I could find the article.

 

[Benvolio]

Although, she still got nearly 3 million more votes.


The ACA had a lot of stuff in it to get insurance companies back into the business of paying claims. Two key rules that will get repealed if the Act is repealed:

1. Insurance companies are required to pay out 80% of premiums toward claims. If they don't, they are required to issue partial refunds for the difference.
2. Insurance companies have to explain premium increases in excess of 10% from year to year.

It's worth mentioning that a significant portion of the Democratic Party wants a public option. During the ACA negotiations, the public option was eliminated as a compromise to get private insurers on board with the legislation.

There's a substantial risk that if the private insurance market fails, it will revive the public option (or Medicare for all) as viable again.


Well, that also fits in with the populist/totalitarian playbook to eliminate all agents of credible opposition. See Putin. See Erdoğan. See Haraszti. See Duterte.

Yes of course many democrats want a public option in which the government gives them healthcare paid for by other people who actually pay taxes.
Attacking the messenger, including all conservative media, is Y O U R cardinal rule.