Paul Ryan’s plan to phase out Medicare is just what Democrats need

[baseline bum]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/11/15/paul-ryans-plan-to-phase-out-medicare-is-just-what-democrats-need
Paul Ryan’s plan to phase out Medicare is just what Democrats need
By Paul Waldman

Democrats have been feeling many emotions over the last week — anguish, fear, rage, and despair, for starters. Now that their heads are clearing enough to begin asking themselves how they can mount an effective opposition to Donald Trump and the Republican Congress over the next four years. One of the first tasks is to find a battle to fight. It isn’t enough to just pick up the paper or check the internet in the morning and be horrified at whatever new appointments Trump is contemplating; for Democrats to regain their focus, they need a specific controversy around which they can organize and potentially notch a win. And it looks like they may have found it.

I’m speaking of Paul Ryan’s wish to privatize Medicare, or phase it out, depending on how you want to look at it. In an interview last week with Fox News, Ryan made clear that as part of the legislative bacchanal Republicans have planned for Trump’s first months in office, he plans to begin the Medicare phaseout he has long advocated. He seems to want to package it together with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act: “Well, you have to remember, when Obamacare became Obamacare, Obamacare rewrote Medicare, rewrote Medicaid. If you are going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well,” he said. “What people don’t realize is because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.”

As part of his strategy, Ryan must convince people that Medicare is all but dead already, so we don’t actually lose much by putting it out of its misery. That’s why he says things like, “Because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.” This is not just a lie but the precise opposite of the truth, and Ryan knows full well it is; in fact, the ACA extended the solvency of the Medicare trust fund by over a decade. And be warned: Any time you hear Republicans say the phrase “entitlement reform,” understand that phasing out Medicare is what they’re talking about.

When Democrats say Ryan wants to “privatize” or “phase out” Medicare, Republicans protest that he and they only want to reform it, strengthen it, save it. This is baloney. (I’d use a slightly different word were this not a family paper.) If Ryan gets his way, Medicare as a universal insurance program will cease to exist. It will be replaced by “premium support,” or vouchers which seniors will use to buy private insurance. If you can’t afford any of the available plans with what the voucher is worth, tough luck. The whole point is to transfer the expense from Medicare to the seniors themselves. Half a century after Medicare brought health security to America’s seniors, Republicans would snuff it out, leaving some unknown number without any coverage at all and breaking the fundamental promise the government made.

Understanding just how much senior citizens love this big-government program of single-payer health insurance, Ryan and other Republicans have always tried to sell privatization by telling seniors that they shouldn’t worry because the changes they’re proposing won’t take effect for a while. You’ll still have the Medicare program you love, they say. It’s those who come after you who will be without it. For whatever combination of reasons this argument has never been persuasive; perhaps seniors just don’t trust it, or perhaps they want to make sure their children and grandchildren enjoy the same health security they do. But whenever Republicans have considered making a privatization push, they’ve quickly changed their minds as they contemplated the almost inevitable backlash.

But now they may have the boldness to give it another shot. For Ryan and other Republicans, phasing out Medicare is a high-risk, high-reward game. Getting rid of it is a beautiful dream, because Medicare is a living rebuke to everything Republicans argue about government programs: It’s a gigantic entitlement that has solved a significant societal problem, works efficiently, and is spectacularly popular. If they could privatize it and then begin to shrink it down little by little, they could then do the same to Medicaid, to CHIP, to anything. As Ryan says on his website, “Medicare is the cornerstone on which all other government health care programs rest.”

Ryan knows the political dangers he faces in trying to phase out Medicare, but he also knows that a chance like the one he has now doesn’t come along very often. So he seems determined to move forward, and that gives Democrats a tremendous opportunity.

An effort to phase out Medicare will unite liberals and give them one specific thing to direct their energies toward. It’ll make the consequences of unified Republican rule vivid and concrete. It will also enable them to apply pressure to every member of Congress in a way that the parade of Trump administration horrors may not. A Republican congressman from Alabama doesn’t care if a few of his constituents are appalled that President Trump will have a white nationalist as his senior adviser. But a threat to their Medicare? Hoo boy. Now that’s trouble.

So as much as the 2016 presidential campaign showed the danger of making predictions in politics, I feel comfortable making this one: Ryan’s effort will fail. If he actually tries to move ahead with a privatization plan, there will be a revolt. Even Republican members of Congress who agree with Ryan’s anti-government goals and who would like to see Medicare die will be terrified of their angry constituents and will quickly abandon him. At some point, President Trump — who has no genuine beliefs about any of this and therefore no ideological commitment to privatizing Medicare — will pull the plug.

And Democrats, having beaten back this effort one more time, might begin to see a glimmer of hope. They’re going to lose a lot in the next four years, perhaps more than they can truly understand at this stage. But they won’t lose everything.

[Axl Rose]

Trump ain't phasing out Medicare, no way

[baseline bum]

It's right there on his transition website, "modernize" Medicare.

https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/healthcare.html

[spurraider21]

so is ryan going back to "makers and takers" talk again?

[rmt]

It's right there on his transition website, "modernize" Medicare.

https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/healthcare.html

and you take "modernize" to mean "phase out"? That's a stretch, imo. Modernize could mean raising the age as we're living longer now.

[baseline bum]

I doubt they touch it for current seniors since they still need them to vote Republican in 2018, but Ryan and Trump are going to fuck over every younger generation. We'll get to keep paying for seniors' medicare and then we'll get worthless vouchers when we hit 65.

[baseline bum]

and you take "modernize" to mean "phase out"? That's a stretch, imo. Modernize could mean raising the age as we're living longer now.

Ryan has already said privatization is happening. Trump's just trying to sell it now.

[baseline bum]

Clinton is such a piece of shit for never bringing up that this was going to happen under a President Trump with a Republican congress. Fucking twat. Let's just talk about Alicia Machado.

[benefactor]

and you take "modernize" to mean "phase out"? That's a stretch, imo. Modernize could mean raising the age as we're living longer now.
Someone needs to take a tally of all the times you've chosen to check out intellectually during your unwavering Trump support.

"I'll tell you what. Why don't we take all these bricks and build a shelter for the homeless, so maybe your mother will have a place to stay."

-Billy Hoyle

[Will Hunting]

so is ryan going back to "makers and takers" talk again?
Did he ever go away from it? I thought the Ayn Rand selfish asshole thing was his shtick.

[Will Hunting]

I doubt they touch it for current seniors since they still need them to vote Republican in 2018, but Ryan and Trump are going to fuck over every younger generation. We'll get to keep paying for seniors' medicare and then we'll get worthless vouchers when we hit 65.
The way I see it is that in 40 years when I'd be eligible, America is either going to be a bankrupt 3rd world country or it will have passed universal healthcare like the rest of the modern world by then.

[daslicer]

The way I see it is that in 40 years when I'd be eligible, America is either going to be a bankrupt 3rd world country or it will have passed universal healthcare like the rest of the modern world by then.

This is what I'm predicting will happen. Once the Baby Boomer generation is extinct that's when I think we'll pass reform for universal healthcare. We are about 20-30 years way from most of them being wiped out.

[spurraider21]

Did he ever go away from it? I thought the Ayn Rand selfish asshole thing was his shtick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diOsN5KDJQY

[rmt]

Ryan has already said privatization is happening. Trump's just trying to sell it now.

IMO, Trump and Ryan have very different ideas on Medicare - asik, Trump hasn't mentioned touching Medicare or SS during his campaign. The word "modernize" on his website doesn't mean that he agrees with Ryan or he's trying to sell privatization - more likely it means slowly bump up the age.

[boutons_deux]

Anybody wonder just WHY? Ryan wants to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, ACA? and then SS later, maybe sooner.

[baseline bum]

IMO, Trump and Ryan have very different ideas on Medicare - asik, Trump hasn't mentioned touching Medicare or SS during his campaign. The word "modernize" on his website doesn't mean that he agrees with Ryan or he's trying to sell privatization - more likely it means slowly bump up the age.

Of course he didn't mention it, he knows Romney lost the 2012 election on scrapping Medicare.

[Th'Pusher]

IMO, Trump and Ryan have very different ideas on Medicare - asik, Trump hasn't mentioned touching Medicare or SS during his campaign. The word "modernize" on his website doesn't mean that he agrees with Ryan or he's trying to sell privatization - more likely it means slowly bump up the age.

O/U on RMT coming to grips with the fact that Donald is a fraud and said whatever he needed to get elected? I give this one 5 years. Come 2021 RMT may accept the reality she got duped by a fraud.

[baseline bum]

The way I see it is that in 40 years when I'd be eligible, America is either going to be a bankrupt 3rd world country or it will have passed universal healthcare like the rest of the modern world by then.

I don't know man, the US is pretty fucking stubborn on everything it seems. We're like the only country in the world that still uses 12th century units for measurement instead of the much simpler metric system, for instance. I don't know where the money for universal healthcare comes from as long as we're blowing tax dollars playing world police with military bases all over the globe.

[rmt]

Of course he didn't mention it, he knows Romney lost the 2012 election on scrapping Medicare.

So why the projection of Ryan's Medicare wishes on Trump? The above articles specifically states that Trump will pull the plug on Ryan's privatizing Medicare.

[baseline bum]

O/U on RMT coming to grips with the fact that Donald is a fraud and said whatever he needed to get elected? I give this one 5 years. Come 2021 RMT may accept the reality she got duped by a fraud.

Yeah I don't buy a word Trump campaigned on. He's looking like a Trojan horse into Washington for the GOP.

[rmt]

O/U on RMT coming to grips with the fact that Donald is a fraud and said whatever he needed to get elected? I give this one 5 years. Come 2021 RMT may accept the reality she got duped by a fraud.

He didn't say anything about Medicare - posters are projecting.

[baseline bum]

He didn't say anything about Medicare - posters are projecting.

He said it on his transition website, what are you talking about?

[Th'Pusher]

So why the projection of Ryan's Medicare wishes on Trump? The above articles specifically states that Trump will pull the plug on Ryan's privatizing Medicare.

Based on this, increasing my O/U to 8 years.

[baseline bum]

Trump is just channeling Frank Luntz by using a nice buzzword to make the GOP's Medicare plan sound reasonable.

[baseline bum]

Based on this, increasing my O/U to 8 years.

:lmao

[rmt]

He said it on his transition website, what are you talking about?

He said modernize - not privatize. You guys are coloring Trump with Ryan's Medicare wishes. Medicare is not one of his premier campaign promises - he's got a lot to do before even considering that - ACA, immigration, taxes, drain the swamp, etc.

[baseline bum]

He said modernize - not privatize. You guys are coloring Trump with Ryan's Medicare wishes. Medicare is not one of his premier campaign promises - he's got a lot to do before even considering that - ACA, immigration, taxes, drain the swamp, etc.

:lol believing shit people campaign on
:lol just like hillary was going to give everyone college free tuition

[rmt]

:lol believing shit people campaign on
:lol just like hillary was going to give everyone college free tuition

He didn't campaign on Medicare. How can you compare that to Hillary's free college tuition?

[Th'Pusher]

He said modernize - not privatize. You guys are coloring Trump with Ryan's Medicare wishes. Medicare is not one of his premier campaign promises - he's got a lot to do before even considering that - ACA, immigration, taxes, drain the swamp, etc.

Oh my. Watching your disappointment with Donald will be sad to watch...you actually believe what this grifter sold during his campaign?

[rmt]

Oh my. Watching your disappointment with Donald will be sad to watch...you actually believe what this grifter sold during his campaign?

Sure you don't mean happy :-) Not to worry - my hope lies elsewhere.

[Pelicans78]

If I have to depend on Medicare when I'm 65 in almost 30 years, I fucked up somewhere along the way.

This country won't be able to afford adequate Medicare in the future. Sure, they can afford a shitty version of it just like the states deal with shitty Medicaid nowadays.

[Pelicans78]

I don't know man, the US is pretty fucking stubborn on everything it seems. We're like the only country in the world that still uses 12th century units for measurement instead of the much simpler metric system, for instance. I don't know where the money for universal healthcare comes from as long as we're blowing tax dollars playing world police with military bases all over the globe.

We're never gonna be able to afford very good universal healthcare in this country. Sure, shitty version like Medicaid which is atrocious, but not adequate enough. It will cost way too much and the country will bankrupt itself in trying to do so.

[DMC]

Trump's medical care plan: Go to doctor. Pay for the shit. Else die.

[SnakeBoy]

Yeah I don't buy a word Trump campaigned on. He's looking like a Trojan horse into Washington for the GOP.

Trojan horse? As in a democrat posing as a republican? Or he's secretly just an establishment type like Ryan?

President's rarely govern the way they campaign (No nation building Bush, Obama the unifier) so we'll have to wait and see what Trump does. I do find it funny that both the left and the Ryan "wing" of the GOP seem to think that Trump is going to be easy to push around considering the fact that he just spent the last year and a half shitting all over both of them.

[rmt]

We're never gonna be able to afford very good universal healthcare in this country. Sure, shitty version like Medicaid which is atrocious, but not adequate enough. It will cost way too much and the country will bankrupt itself in trying to do so.

It's gonna cause problems for the states that did ACA Medicaid expansion (much less universal healthcare) - almost double the expected enrollment and 49% higher than expected cost per enrollee.

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/states-discover-the-high-cost-of-obamacares-free-medicaid-expansion/

[boutons_deux]

"Trump hasn't mentioned touching Medicare or SS during his campaign"

again, you ignorance is funny.

Trash LIED IN HIS CAMPAIGN that he wouldn't touch Medicare or SS, but he has already agreed to RyanCare (privatizing Medicare).

He will sign any and all bills the Repug establishment Congress sends him fucking up Medicaid (transformed by block grants to the states for political slush funds) and SS.

The mod to SS that will affect all retirees (not just those below a certain age) will be a new calculation to reduce the cost of living adjustments, so retirees, already underpaid, will get poorer over the years.

Other shit on the Repug sociopathic agenda:

raising the age for full benefits of both SS and Medicare.

[rmt]

"Trump hasn't mentioned touching Medicare or SS during his campaign"

again, you ignorance is funny.

Trash LIED IN HIS CAMPAIGN that he wouldn't touch Medicare or SS, but he has already agreed to RyanCare (privatizing Medicare).

He will sign any and all bills the Repug establishment Congress sends him fucking up Medicaid (transformed by block grants to the states for political slush funds) and SS.

The mod to SS that will affect all retirees (not just those below a certain age) will be a new calculation to reduce the cost of living adjustments, so retirees, already underpaid, will get poorer over the years.

Other shit on the Repug sociopathic agenda:

raising the age for full benefits of both SS and Medicare.



Please link to where he has already agreed to privatizing Medicare.

I agree with slowly raising the age for SS and Medicare - we are all living longer lives - something must be done to save them and that is probably the least painful.

[rmt]

Since the program first began paying monthly Social Security benefits in 1940, the average life expectancy for men reaching age 65 has increased nearly 7 years to age 84.3, for women reaching age 65, their average life expectancy has increased nearly 7 years to age 86.6.

[boutons_deux]

Please link to where he has already agreed to privatizing Medicare.

I agree with slowly raising the age for SS and Medicare - we are all living longer lives - something must be done to save them and that is probably the least painful.

I read it on the intertubes.

I have absolutely no doubt that Trash will agree to, or at least remain silent, as Ryan's sociopaths screw, through reconciliation (Ryan has promised to use reconciliation), Medicare, Medicaid, safety net.

(SS is not part of the budget so can't be modified through reconciliation, but Repugs will kill all filibuster)

People may be living just a little longer (Trash's voters have been found to have decreasing longevity due to drugs, alcohol, guns) but it's like a few tenths of a year longer, not full years longer.

( btw, Americans comparatively LOW longevity actually matches or exceeds other countries for those Americans who live to 65 and obtain Medicare health care. )

For you sociopaths who love to fuck over old people while cheering while BigCorp fleeces those same people for decades:

Where are the 65+ people going to get the money to pay for their own health care and/or retirement? They may be employed (like under 4% unemployment) until age 70 but at what income?

[ElNono]

so is ryan going back to "makers and takers" talk again?

did he ever left that talk?

[ElNono]

Did he ever go away from it? I thought the Ayn Rand selfish asshole thing was his shtick.

this niglet beat me to it :lol

[ElNono]

Trojan horse? As in a democrat posing as a republican? Or he's secretly just an establishment type like Ryan?

Good question.


President's rarely govern the way they campaign (No nation building Bush, Obama the unifier) so we'll have to wait and see what Trump does. I do find it funny that both the left and the Ryan "wing" of the GOP seem to think that Trump is going to be easy to push around considering the fact that he just spent the last year and a half shitting all over both of them.

IMO, Trump having a huge ego is a plus here. If he keeps being the attention whore he's always been, Medicare and SS are probably relatively safe.

He's going to care about his "legacy" and he can always rail against the likes of Ryan with the 'draining the swamp' BS...

[boutons_deux]

Medicare and SS are probably relatively safe.

He's going to care about his "legacy" and he can always rail against the likes of Ryan with the 'draining the swamp' BS...

It's nothing but wishful thinking that Trash will have fights with the Repug Congress.

He will not even threaten to veto Repug bills, amendments.

He doesn't care about his legacy, because he will LIE about it as he always has ("I'm rich. Really rich"), remaining totally immune to the truth. "Sad. So sad"

[ducks]

"Trump hasn't mentioned touching Medicare or SS during his campaign"

again, you ignorance is funny.

Trash LIED IN HIS CAMPAIGN that he wouldn't touch Medicare or SS, but he has already agreed to RyanCare (privatizing Medicare).

He will sign any and all bills the Repug establishment Congress sends him fucking up Medicaid (transformed by block grants to the states for political slush funds) and SS.

The mod to SS that will affect all retirees (not just those below a certain age) will be a new calculation to reduce the cost of living adjustments, so retirees, already underpaid, will get poorer over the years.

Other shit on the Repug sociopathic agenda:

raising the age for full benefits of both SS and Medicare.


all people running for office lie when running
however some try to do some of the things but do not succed

[TDMVPDPOY]

problem with medicare is too many freeloaders on the system abusing the system while tax revenue allocated to it is not enough to meet the rising costs of medical treatment...

[boutons_deux]

problem with medicare is too many freeloaders on the system abusing the system while tax revenue allocated to it is not enough to meet the rising costs of medical treatment...

Medicare isn't the problem. It has been screwed, along with all Americans, by for-profit health insurance and for-profit health care.

Until health insurance and care are available without profit seeking, EVERYTHING else is bullshit.

And as if the sticker price of health care wasn't bad enough to satisfy their profit-seaking, there are annual $10Bs of Medicare/Medicaid fraud by even legit providers.

[AaronY]

Whenever I go overseas and talk politics first thing people always ask is why we dont believe in universal healthcare. Seems so like simple to them even the conservatives there dont argue against it even though they are very similar to US repubs in a lot of other ways

[boutons_deux]

Irony alert: Trump voters in KY worry they might lose Medicaid coverage (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/19/1601994/-Irony-alert-Trump-voters-in-KY-worry-they-might-lose-medicaid-coverage)

The good folk of Clay County, KY voted by a huge margin of 86-11 (http://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/kentucky/)for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in last week’s presidential election.

It also turns out that (http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/19/502580120/in-depressed-rural-kentucky-worries-mount-over-medicaid-cutbacks):

About 60 percent of Clay County's 21,000 residents are covered by Medicaid, up from about a third before the expansion. The counties [sic] uninsured rate for nonelderly adults has fallen from 29 percent to 10 percent.


That means that a good portion of the residents of that county just voted to have their own medical coverage taken away from themselves, their families and their neighbor

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/19/1601994/-Irony-alert-Trump-voters-in-KY-worry-they-might-lose-medicaid-coverage

:lol

[baseline bum]

Trojan horse? As in a democrat posing as a republican? Or he's secretly just an establishment type like Ryan?

President's rarely govern the way they campaign (No nation building Bush, Obama the unifier) so we'll have to wait and see what Trump does. I do find it funny that both the left and the Ryan "wing" of the GOP seem to think that Trump is going to be easy to push around considering the fact that he just spent the last year and a half shitting all over both of them.

He's certainly not a democrat trojan horse like all the right wingers were predicting, at least based on his cabinet appointments and supreme court list. I expect Trump to be really lazy as president and to mostly go with whatever Pence tells him just like first term Bush with Cheney. Trump never prepared for debates, why would he do much due diligence on policy after having won?

[Trainwreck2100]

Trojan horse? As in a democrat posing as a republican? Or he's secretly just an establishment type like Ryan?

President's rarely govern the way they campaign (No nation building Bush, Obama the unifier) so we'll have to wait and see what Trump does. I do find it funny that both the left and the Ryan "wing" of the GOP seem to think that Trump is going to be easy to push around considering the fact that he just spent the last year and a half shitting all over both of them.

Trojan Horse as is he said he was going to clean up and instead he's going to put on a trojan condom and rape Americans in the ass, but just the majority of them

[Spurminator]

Whenever I go overseas and talk politics first thing people always ask is why we dont believe in universal healthcare. Seems so like simple to them even the conservatives there dont argue against it even though they are very similar to US repubs in a lot of other ways

But do you ask them why they all hate their universal healthcare? Because I've been told it's disastrous and they all hate it.

[pgardn]

But do you ask them why they all hate their universal healthcare? Because I've been told it's disastrous and they all hate it.

My feeling with talking to people, especially Canadians, is they love it for the young ones.

[florige]

Clinton is such a piece of shit for never bringing up that this was going to happen under a President Trump with a Republican congress. Fucking twat. Let's just talk about Alicia Machado.



She was too busy playing into his game.

[DMC]

How would a king operate?

You get power (ergo king)
You don't look for ways to defeat your opponents, you get them close to you, to commit. Then you have them arrested or indicted for crimes. You can fire them and shame them. Maybe Trump will bring in the biggest GOP assholes and take them down one by one.

Yeah that

[CosmicCowboy]

She was too busy playing into his game.

She was too busy popping champagne to see the Trump Train coming.

[SnakeBoy]

Since the program first began paying monthly Social Security benefits in 1940, the average life expectancy for men reaching age 65 has increased nearly 7 years to age 84.3, for women reaching age 65, their average life expectancy has increased nearly 7 years to age 86.6.

Yep

http://www.china-profile.com/data/animations/ceu/ani_usa_1S.gif

[Will Hunting]

But do you ask them why they all hate their universal healthcare? Because I've been told it's disastrous and they all hate it.
This. I want to hear about all the Canadians who had to wait 20 months for doctors to operate on their life threatening condition!

[ElNono]

Since the program first began paying monthly Social Security benefits in 1940, the average life expectancy for men reaching age 65 has increased nearly 7 years to age 84.3, for women reaching age 65, their average life expectancy has increased nearly 7 years to age 86.6.

that should be a slogan, tbh... "Social Security, extending life expectancy since 1940"...

[boutons_deux]

Republicans Who Think Nobody Would Miss Obamacare Should Ask People Who Depend On It

Millions value their coverage — and worry what the GOP would do instead.

Some of the Republicans (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/gop/) agitating to repeal Obamacare say they aren’t worried about taking health insurance away from more than 20 million people. Their theory: The program is wildly unpopular and even the people with coverage wouldn’t miss it, no matter what takes it place.

“People have crappy insurance,” Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) told Politico (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/republicans-aim-to-start-obamacare-repeal-in-january-231522) last week. “This fear that they’re going to lose something that they don’t think they have anyway is crazy.”

Many people are unhappy with Obamacare, yes. But many others value the coverage. On the whole, these people are not likely to get as much assistance or protection from a Republican replacement (http://www.vox.com/2016/11/17/13626438/obamacare-replacement-plans-comparison) plan, and that’s assuming Congress can even pass one at all.

The Majority Of People With Obamacare Seem To Value It

The popularity of Obamacare with its users may surprise not only Republicans, but also people who know about the law primarily through press coverage. One of the biggest myths about the law is that most people who have the coverage think it’s lousy.

Kaiser looked at people buying coverage on their own, breaking out those who got coverage through one of the law’s exchanges and those buying directly from insurers. Commonwealth looked specifically at people who got insurance through the exchanges, as well as people who had enrolled in Medicaid.

The questions covered all the important issues, from premiums and deductibles to doctor choice. The results were remarkably consistent across the board. When asked to judge the plans overall, majorities rated their insurance as good, very good or excellent.

http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_630_noupscale/58333ea31a00002500cc9151.jpeg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-repeal-republicans_us_58331e5ae4b058ce7aac1fab?utm_medium =email&utm_campaign=The%20Morning%20Email%20112316&utm_content=The%20Morning%20Email%20112316+CID_ed1 311ee2ae28a4ead17775e4cd91690&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=debate%20over%20Obamacare

[AaronY]

But do you ask them why they all hate their universal healthcare? Because I've been told it's disastrous and they all hate it.
lol.

Tried talking to a right wing guy in my family about it and first thing he said was something like "dont care on what they do over in commie europe. this is AMerica". tried reasoning with him and saying that you know he has a European ancestry and these people are basically biologically identical to him and its the same planet at the same time so would be a good test case or example for how some fellow people have responded to it but he didn't care. I mean its not like its some other planet with a different species that I'm using as an example but what the hell do I know

[boutons_deux]

lol.

Tried talking to a right wing guy in my family about it and first thing he said was something like "dont care on what they do over in commie europe.

hallmark of rightwingnutjobs is self-screwing stupidity, ignorance.

[boutons_deux]

Trumpcare Is Likely to Be Costlier, Less Efficient, and More Annoying Than Obamacare

Donald Trump has provided few details of his health plan, but experiments in Republican-run states offer a good preview

states under Republican control have already provided a good preview of what a GOP replacement of Obamacare might look like. And if they're any indication, Trumpcare is likely to be more expensive and more complicated than the current system, while covering fewer people and micromanaging them more.

Trump's website offers vague notions about creating a more "patient-centered healthcare system" and giving the states more control over its regulation. The latter promise echoes a trend over the past couple of years in Republican-controlled states, which have agreed to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act only if they gained leeway to implement it in accordance with their conservative principles. The Obama administration agreed to many of these changes to give more people access to health care. Those state expansion plans now offer one of the best looks at what Trump and a Republican Congress might have in store for Obamacare.

The party of smaller government has made an art of designing expensive, complicated, and intrusively bureaucratic health care programs under the guise of promoting personal responsibility.

Perhaps the best example comes from Indiana, under the leadership of Gov. Mike Pence, now the vice president-elect. Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0 (https://www.in.gov/fssa/hip/) (HIP 2.0) was designed to force low-income people to put some "skin in the game," by requiring them to contribute their own money to the plan as a way of deterring them from using too many unnecessary health care services. To that end, the program has a bewildering array of at least six different benefit levels and cost-sharing requirements. It's so complicated Pence himself had trouble explaining it (http://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/-20140519pence_120448891045.pdf)

It provides recipients with a $2,500 health care account, paid for by the state and Medicaid enrollees' premiums. When the money runs out, a high-deductible insurance plan kicks in. If recipients engage in preventive care, the amount of money they can roll over from one year to the next goes up. The setup is supposed to encourage beneficiaries to limit their health care usage while taking personal responsibility for their health.

the incentive program doesn't seem to be working especially well, mainly because most people in the plan have no idea what it is. A recent evaluation of the program (http://www.cbpp.org/research/health/indiana-medicaid-waiver-evaluation-shows-why-kentuckys-medicaid-proposal-shouldnt-be#_ftn1) found that at least 60 percent of the people surveyed who had a POWER account had never heard of it, and of those who had, many didn't understand how it worked.

The survey mirrored similar research in Iowa and Michigan, where Republicans had tried to force behavioral changes on Medicaid recipients through complex incentive plans. Research shows (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23635051) that simply giving people insurance in traditional Medicaid will increase the number of people who use preventive care, without the need for incentives.

"Premiums are not generating revenue for states,"

Arkansas would spend more than $15 for every dollar it collected in contributions to Medicaid health savings accounts. The Michigan Medicaid expansion, with features similar to Indiana's, cost $20 million a year to administer.

The premiums do serve another function: They depress enrollment in Medicaid. That phenomenon has been well documented in other states and now also in Indiana. About a third of people in Indiana who apply for HIP 2.0 and are found eligible ultimately don't get insured because they fail to pay the first premiums. People who don't pay premiums while in the program can be dropped and then blocked from reenrolling for six months.

"There's this assumption that these people are not worthy and therefore we're going to make arbitrary hoops for them to jump through so we can punish them when they fail to jump through them,"

"We're lawyers and analysts and we can't figure [these programs] out."

(Indiana's uninsured rate is more than 9 percent (http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/14/uninsured-rate-continues-fall-indiana/90369226/), compared with 6 percent in Kentucky, which expanded Medicaid under a Democratic governor without any restrictions.)

Other states, including Arizona, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (http://ccf.georgetown.edu/2016/09/30/arizona-and-cms-reach-agreement-on-medicaid-waiver/), have asked the Obama administration for a laundry list of conservative changes

requests include the types of provisions that were incorporated into the welfare reform law in the 1990s, such as work requirements and lifetime limits on benefits.

It's the health care version of self-deportation: Create enough hurdles to enrollment, and most people will drop out of the insurance program all on their own.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/trumpcare-likely-be-more-costly-less-efficient-and-more-annoying-obamacare

Repugs ALWAYS fuck the poor, even white poor who vote Repug, because they are sub-human Rick Santelli "losers". If God loved the poor, He would have made them rich.

[boutons_deux]

Trump promised to repeal Obamacare, but it turns out Americans like most of it, a poll finds

Despite sharp partisan differences over the Affordable Care Act (http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/healthcare/healthcare-policies-laws/affordable-care-act-EVGAP00039-topic.html), Democrats (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/democratic-party-ORGOV0000005-topic.html) and Republicans (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/republican-party-ORGOV0000004-topic.html),

including voters who backed President-elect Donald Trump (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-trump),

strongly support most of the law’s key provisions, a new national poll (http://kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-november-2016) indicates.

most Trump voters still favor repealing the law, often called Obamacare, an increasing share of Americans overall oppose that approach,

Just a quarter of Americans say they wanted to scrap the law, down from nearly a third in October.

By contrast, nearly half say they want the law expanded or implemented as it is. Another 17% say they want the law scaled back.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obamacare-poll-20161201-story.html

Just like doing nothing about immigration used only as Repug campaign issue, I bet the Repugs won't (be able to) do anything about ACA, and will campaign on repealing ACA again in the 2108 mid-terms.

[dbestpro]

The best parts of medicare is already privatized through advantage plans.

[dbestpro]

Trump promised to repeal Obamacare, but it turns out Americans like most of it, a poll finds

Despite sharp partisan differences over the Affordable Care Act (http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/healthcare/healthcare-policies-laws/affordable-care-act-EVGAP00039-topic.html), Democrats (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/democratic-party-ORGOV0000005-topic.html) and Republicans (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/republican-party-ORGOV0000004-topic.html),

including voters who backed President-elect Donald Trump (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-trump),

strongly support most of the law’s key provisions, a new national poll (http://kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-november-2016) indicates.

most Trump voters still favor repealing the law, often called Obamacare, an increasing share of Americans overall oppose that approach,

Just a quarter of Americans say they wanted to scrap the law, down from nearly a third in October.

By contrast, nearly half say they want the law expanded or implemented as it is. Another 17% say they want the law scaled back.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obamacare-poll-20161201-story.html

Just like doing nothing about immigration used only as Repug campaign issue, I bet the Repugs won't (be able to) do anything about ACA, and will campaign on repealing ACA again in the 2108 mid-terms.




Translation - Everybody wants everything free. Reality - Health insurance that no one can afford to use is no insurance at all, whether it is part of Obamacare or Trumpcare.

[boutons_deux]

The best parts of medicare is already privatized through advantage plans.

Medicare Advantage is nothing but a Repug gift to BigInsurance, shifting taxpayer $Bs to BigInsurance.

Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers 10%+ more than standard Medicare.

[boutons_deux]

Translation - Everybody wants everything free. Reality - Health insurance that no one can afford to use is no insurance at all, whether it is part of Obamacare or Trumpcare.

You Lie.

People know they can't have free health care and don't mind paying for health care, but they do mind OVER-paying $1T+ per year, which never stops increasing, than they would pay compared to other industrial countries.

Health insurance under TrashCare/RyanCare (if they ever figure out what it will be. They haven't done so for 6+ years) will cost more and cover less, based on what analysts know so far.

TrashCare/RyanCare will force Ms to suffer and/or die for want of health care.

[rmt]

Medicare Advantage is nothing but a Repug gift to BigInsurance, shifting taxpayer $Bs to BigInsurance.

Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers 10%+ more than standard Medicare.

boutons, traditional Medicare only pays for 80% of Part B (medical insurance). There are no limits to the Part B 20% co-pays so some seniors buy MediGap to cover. Medicare Advantage is just another way to cover - gives you more choices - either way (MediGap or Medicare Advantage) you pay to cover that 20%.

[boutons_deux]

boutons, traditional Medicare only pays for 80% of Part B (medical insurance). There are no limits to the Part B 20% co-pays so some seniors buy MediGap to cover. Medicare Advantage is just another way to cover - gives you more choices - either way (MediGap or Medicare Advantage) you pay to cover that 20%.

Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers 10% or more than standard Medicare. the 10%? it goes to BigInsurance investors.

[Quadzilla99]

Gutting medicare didn't go through in 05 but looks like a lock this time. Weird because all the rural whites who are struggling financially would be devastated by it when they get older but they live in an alternate trump/ fox news reality to where they'll think this is a good thing or find a way to blame the Democrats somehow

[baseline bum]

Gutting medicare didn't go through in 05 but looks like a lock this time. Weird because all the rural whites who are struggling financially would be devastated by it when they get older but they live in an alternate trump/ fox news reality to where they'll think this is a good thing or find a way to blame the Democrats somehow

They'll probably accomplish it the same way Ryan wanted to in 2012: by preserving it in full for baby boomers (who are their base) and then ripping it from every younger generation.

[boutons_deux]

8 Big Changes Under Tom Price’s Obamacare Replacement Plan

Here are eight big changes in U.S. health care that may be coming if Price’s legislation (http://tomprice.house.gov/sites/tomprice.house.gov/files/Section%20by%20Section%20of%20HR%202300%20Empoweri ng%20Patients%20First%20Act%202015.pdf)Empower Patients First Act prevails:

-- Obamacare would be scrapped, including the government-run insurance markets in every state, the mandates on individuals and businesses and federal tax credits to subsidize the insurance of lower income Americans. Price’s plan instead would offer fixed tax credits – pegged to a person’s age rather than their income -- so that they can buy their insurance policies in the private market.

-- Those tax credits would be fairly modest, ranging from $1,200 a year for people 18 to 35 years of age to $3,000 for those 51 and older. In many regions of the country, that would hardly begin to cover the premiums and out-of-pocket costs for a relatively comprehensive health insurance plan.

-- Just as is the case under Obamacare, people with pre-existing medical conditions or chronic illnesses couldn’t be denied coverage under Price’s approach -- provided they had continuous insurance for 18 months before choosing a new policy. That’s a big caveat designed to discourage people from obtaining coverage during an illness and then dropping the policy after recovering. If someone allows their policy to lapse, the next time they return to the market they could be charged up to 150 percent of the standard premiums for the next two years.

-- This concept of requiring people to maintain “continuous coverage,” is a popular one among Republican policymakers, and is also included in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” approach.

-- Price would seek expanded use of health savings accounts to allow people to save income before taxes to pay for future health care needs. Health savings accounts already are a common feature in many workplaces. One twist under Price’s approach is that people who are currently covered by Medicare, the Veterans Affairs Department or some other government health program could contribute to health savings accounts to help cover their premiums and copayments.

-- As a way of addressing the insurance industry’s challenge in covering older and sicker Americans, Price would provide grants to states to insure the “high risk” population. The risk pools would be the equivalent of a safety net for insurers, to offset part of their costs when hit with enrollees’ catastrophic health care costs. But Price appears to be seriously low-balling the scope of the problem by proposing to invest a mere $3 billion into state risk pools over a three-year period. Ryan’s “Better Way” plan, for instance, would provide $25 billion over the coming decade, and even that might prove to be woefully inadequate.

-- Price would likely roil businesses by imposing a cap on the amount of money that companies could deduct from their taxes to defray the cost of providing health insurance to their workers. This exclusion is one of the largest in the federal tax code and costs the government an estimated $260 billion a year in foregone revenue. Price’s approach would limit the employer tax exclusion for providing health insurance to $8,000 a year for individual policies and $20,000 for families.

-- In one of the biggest blows to poor and low-income Americans, Price would repeal the expanded Medicaid coverage in 32 states and the District of Columbia for able-bodied single people and leave those current beneficiaries to fend for themselves on the open market, using other tax credits and benefits.

-- Price’s approach matches that of GOP President-elect Donald Trump in one notable way – by allowing health insurers licensed to sell policies in one state to offer them to residents of other states. This approach would allow consumers to shop around for health insurance across state lines just as they might for any other insurance product.

-- Finally, the Price proposals would foster an insurance market very welcoming to young, healthy and financially self-sufficient people but hostile to sicker and older people. For one thing, it would eliminate Obamacare-style mandates for insurers to include a standard package of benefits such as maternity services and pediatric care and allow them to offer cheaper, less comprehensive policies to younger people who are looking for a bargain.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/healthcare/8-big-changes-under-tom-price%C3%A2%E2%82%AC-tm-s-obamacare-replacement-plan/ar-AAkXhse

Repugs, Trash gonna fuck up America even worse than it already is, and above all fuck Trash/Repug voters.

And BigInsurance, BigHealthCare, BigPharma won't lose a penny.

[baseline bum]

What a piece of shit plan. :lol

[boutons_deux]

What a piece of shit plan. :lol

The Repugs won't apply their Medicare/ACA shit only to the under-50s. Current Medicare people will see much higher premiums and copays, get less coverage, and get totally insufficient vouchers to go buy for-profit insurance rather than no-profit govt insurance.

[baseline bum]

The Repugs won't apply their Medicare/ACA shit only to the under-50s. Current Medicare people will see much higher premiums and copays, get less coverage, and get totally insufficient vouchers to go buy for-profit insurance rather than no-profit govt insurance.

I don't know, in 2012 Ryan was talking about how we made promises to the baby boomers already and have to honor those, so no vouchers for them. Only vouchers for everyone else.

[boutons_deux]

I don't know, in 2012 Ryan was talking about how we made promises to the baby boomers already and have to honor those, so no vouchers for them. Only vouchers for everyone else.

Repugs will "sell" the voucher plan as exact equivalent to Medicare. EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY is on the table. It will be brutal.

My guess is the nastiest stuff will be sprung after the 2018 midterms

[boutons_deux]

GOP Senators From Medicaid Expansion States Feel Pressure With ACA Repeal :lol

As the GOP confronts the complexity (https://t.co/SI4ZG4bHYO)of repealing Obamacare, Senate Republicans hailing from states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act are feeling an extra layer of pressure.

Altogether, there will likely be 20 Republican senators from Medicaid expansion states next term.

Many come from so-called “Trump country,” the industrial and rust belt states like Pennsylvania and Ohio that were critical to Trump’s win.

Working class whites in general have been among the top beneficiaries of Medicaid expansion. :lol
"I'm from a state that has an expanded Medicaid population that I am very concerned about," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) this week.

"I don't want to throw them off into the cold, and I don't think that's a strategy that I want to see. It's too many people. That's over 200,000 people in my state. So we need a transition. I think we'll repeal and then we'll work during the transition period for the replacement vehicle."

Millions of the Americans who have been able to enroll in Medicaid due to the expansion live in states represented by Republicans in the Senate.

According to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/downloads/cms-64-enrollment-report-oct-dec-2015.pdf) data, in December 2015, the most recent monthly report available, more than 2.5 million people in GOP-represented states were enrolled in Medicaid through the expanded eligibility.

That doesn't include the enrollees in the red states that have expanded more recently, Louisiana and Montana. (Colorado, Nevada and North Dakota -- all states with GOP senators -- were also not included in the CMS data set due to reporting issues.)

Medicaid expansion in Capito’s state -- which voted for Trump overwhelmingly -- was implemented by Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in 2013 without the approval of its legislature.

Other GOP senators live in purple states where Democratic state legislatures expanded Medicaid, while the states of some members -- like Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst (R) and Chuck Grassley (R) -- only expanded Medicaid once their Republican governors were able to work out a deal with the Obama administration to expand in a moderated form.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-from-medicaid-expansion-state-feeling-extra-pressure-on-aca-repeal?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29


:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

That's just Medicaid expansion, which Tom Price want's to CANCEL IMMEDIATELY.

Now, add in tiny little vouchers to replace Medicare, sending seniors into the very complex, confusing "individual market" to buy insurance, WITHOUT subsidies from repealed ACA. Higher out of pocket, copays, and higher premiums.

Investing? how about in companies that produce "pill splitters"? :lol

Then add in the recalc of of SS CoL adjustments that will hurt CURRENT retirees, as they get poorer on reduced SS over the years.

[boutons_deux]

by preserving it in full for baby boomers

nope, tiny little vouchers, higher copays will be IMMEDIATE for all Medicare beneficiaries, as will Tom Price immediately cancelling all Medicaid expansion under ACA.

Repug sociopathic, blind ideology requires the everybody get fucked as much and as soon as possible.

[baseline bum]

I have to give Trump credit. He ran as a moderate to con people into putting him in office so he could implement a far right agenda. It's what Romney should have done.

[boutons_deux]

boutons, traditional Medicare only pays for 80% of Part B (medical insurance). There are no limits to the Part B 20% co-pays so some seniors buy MediGap to cover. Medicare Advantage is just another way to cover - gives you more choices - either way (MediGap or Medicare Advantage) you pay to cover that 20%.

Medicare Advantage is nothing but a Repug gift to BigInsurance, shifting taxpayer $Bs to BigInsurance.

Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers 10%+ more than standard Medicare.

[Nbadan]

I have to give Trump credit. He ran as a moderate to con people into putting him in office so he could implement an alt-right agenda.

fifu

[boutons_deux]

Republicans have the solution for the post-Obamacare repeal crisis: Bailouts!

Faced with the problem of a giant crater in the health insurance marketplace, the GOP wants to throw money into it

Republicans are be determined to pass an Obamacare repeal bill (http://www.salon.com/2016/11/30/gops-obamacare-trouble-repeal-and-replace-turns-out-to-be-tougher-than-it-sounds/) as soon as Donald Trump becomes president in January, but after that, everything seems to be up in the air (http://www.salon.com/2016/11/30/congressional-republicans-lay-out-obamacare-rollback-game-plan-repeal-then-replace/).

And so, in true free-market fashion, they’re prepared to give the health insurance industry a massive bailout to counter the problems they’re going to create.

Republicans in congress are talking to health insurance companies, The Hill reported (http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/308403-gop-in-talks-about-helping-insurers-after-obamacare-repeal) Thursday, hoping that they can prevent a collapse of the insurance market if and when they repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The idea is for the Trump administration to pay any insurance companies that suffer heavy losses as a result of Obamacare’s repeal (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-obamacare-republicans-repeal-20161121-story.html).

This approach may prevent premiums from rising and patients from being dropped by their plans (maybe), but it would certainly be viewed as a bailout to insurance companies — one of the very charges Republicans made against President Obama when he was trying to pass the Affordable Care Act.

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/02/republicans-have-the-solution-for-the-post-obamacare-repeal-crisis-bailouts/

Repugs gonna bailout BigInsurance (their paymasters), letting citizens become more impoverished, and stay diseased, suffering, dying.

[baseline bum]

fifu

Killing off Medicare and the ACA seems pretty standard right wing.

[baseline bum]

Repugs will "sell" the voucher plan as exact equivalent to Medicare. EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY is on the table. It will be brutal.

My guess is the nastiest stuff will be sprung after the 2018 midterms

I think preserving Medicare for baby boomers and only applying the vouchers to younger generations might be a "concession" the GOP offers to get Democrat votes for whatever ACA replacement they come up with. With only a 52-48 advantage in the senate the Republicans are going to have a very hard time passing an ACA replacement when their senate ranks are filled with hardliners like Cruz and people afraid of getting primaried in 2018. It would give them a way to fuck over seniors and then blame Democrats for it too.

[johnsmith]

Here's how I understand Obamacare....ever since it existed, my fucking premiums have went up about 100%. My deductibles have also shot up. Covering myself, my wife, my two kids, and boutons mom has gotten fucking outrageous.

Fuck Obamacare! And I know for certain I'm not alone on this overly simple analysis.

Except for the boutons mom thing....that's just a sweet bonus.

[boutons_deux]

Here's how I understand Obamacare....ever since it existed, my fucking premiums have went up about 100%. My deductibles have also shot up. Covering myself, my wife, my two kids, and boutons mom has gotten fucking outrageous.

Fuck Obamacare! And I know for certain I'm not alone on this overly simple analysis.

Except for the boutons mom thing....that's just a sweet bonus.

wonderfully, sweetly, you are one of very few who under ACA who think they are screwed by it. polls show that nearly everybody who obtained, has insurance under ACA likes it and wants to keep it.

[johnsmith]

wonderfully, sweetly, you are one of very few who under ACA who think they are screwed by it. polls show that nearly everybody who obtained, has insurance under ACA likes it and wants to keep it.

No you fucking idiot. I'm actually employed and therefore not covered by the "affordable" care act. I'm insured through work and I work for a small business. Our premiums have shot thru the roof year over year.

In fact just this year our insurer raised our premiums another 146% forcing us to hit the market.

I know people with jobs are your mortal enemy, but we are the ones that have gotten fucked. Oh, and ask small business owners how they feel about it!

I know this might shock you boutons but not everything you read on the Internet is true.

[Shastafarian]

No you fucking idiot. I'm actually employed and therefore not covered by the "affordable" care act. I'm insured through work and I work for a small business. Our premiums have shot thru the roof year over year.

In fact just this year our insurer raised our premiums another 146% forcing us to hit the market.

I know people with jobs are your mortal enemy, but we are the ones that have gotten fucked. Oh, and ask small business owners how they feel about it!

I know this might shock you boutons but not everything you read on the Internet is true.

Interesting.

[Th'Pusher]

No you fucking idiot. I'm actually employed and therefore not covered by the "affordable" care act. I'm insured through work and I work for a small business. Our premiums have shot thru the roof year over year.

In fact just this year our insurer raised our premiums another 146% forcing us to hit the market.

I know people with jobs are your mortal enemy, but we are the ones that have gotten fucked. Oh, and ask small business owners how they feel about it!

I know this might shock you boutons but not everything you read on the Internet is true.

I haven't had the same experience with my employer provided health insurance. Anual premium increases have been in the 8-10% range post ACA which isn't much different than pre ACA.

[johnsmith]

I haven't had the same experience with my employer provided health insurance. Anual premium increases have been in the 8-10% range post ACA which isn't much different than pre ACA.

What size company you work at?

Or rather how many employees....sorry if that wasn't clear.

[johnsmith]

Interesting.

How come you say that? I'm worried I gave something away lol!

[Th'Pusher]

What size company you work at?

Or rather how many employees....sorry if that wasn't clear.

~18k

[johnsmith]

~18k

That right there is the difference. We have 78 right now and at most at any given time, 85. Prior to working for this company I worked somewhere that had 10k and you're absolutely right, it was substantially cheaper. Smaller companies have to pay higher premiums....or at the very least, the employees certainly do because the ownership can't swing the same "pitch in" that larger companies can.

For what it's worth, I'm in the construction industry and I'm in sales so I deal with companies that range from 20 people and ones that have 20k. I know several of the smaller companies that have gone under in the last two years due to no longer being able to make money in an industry with tight margins and having to cover every employee because of the ACA act. Laborers just cling to the companies that can pay more of their insurance and smaller guys are getting f'd.

[johnsmith]

Also, I just recently switched companies and have to pay COBRA for a month.....$1,750 for one month. While at the company, they payed $750 and I was hit for $1k. That's fucking outrageous.

In the meantime, I have an uncle on my wife's side that has all sorts of shit wrong with him. He has about four million prescriptions and often "over medicates" himself and ends up in the ER for a week. Honestly, this happens to him about once a quarter. So far, he's payed zero dollars in premiums or co pays or deductibles. Fuck the American insurance system!!!!

[johnsmith]

I also realize that this all anecdotal based on my personal experience. But I'm not the only one that struggles with this and thinks of it the same way. It's honestly the main reason I was ok with Trump winning. I can't stand him, but if he fixed this shit, I'm happy.

[Shastafarian]

How come you say that? I'm worried I gave something away lol!

Because I agree in the sense that ACA is seriously flawed. But the flaws are because of the compromise Obama agreed to that allows insurance companies to dictate prices. Obama and his healthcare act aren't technically the enemies here. The enemy is, and always has been, the insurance companies. Single Payer is the only answer.

[johnsmith]

Because I agree in the sense that ACA is seriously flawed. But the flaws are because of the compromise Obama agreed to that allows insurance companies to dictate prices. Obama and his healthcare act aren't technically the enemies here. The enemy is, and always has been, the insurance companies. Single Payer is the only answer.

I completely agree with your assessment of who the enemy is. My beef is that it all got infinitely worse after the ACA.

[boutons_deux]

I also realize that this all anecdotal based on my personal experience. But I'm not the only one that struggles with this and thinks of it the same way. It's honestly the main reason I was ok with Trump winning. I can't stand him, but if he fixed this shit, I'm happy.

Trash won't fix shit, dreamer.

BigInsurance is just one of the many ways BigCorp, BigFinance, etc FLEECE Americans of their wealth.

There's NOTHING to be done.

Human-Americans are completely powerless, disenfranchised opposite Corporate-Americans and the whore politicians they own.

Trash's CONNED supporters won't be able to do anything when (well actually IF, seeing how fucking stupid they are) they realize that Trash, Repug establishment working for the corporatocracy will have screwed them even more by 2020 than now.

[boutons_deux]

Ryan and accomplices LIE that Medicare is a disaster, going bankrupt (ACA pushed that imaginary point into the future by 11 years), now Repugs are going to "save" Medicare

Key House Chairman: GOP will 'Change' Medicare, to 'Save' It

https://res.cloudinary.com/tpm/image/upload/c_fill,fl_keep_iptc,g_face,w_653,h_361/w6bxv7jgeubstzhvfsox.jpg

The chairman of a key House committee is pledging that congressional Republicans will change Medicare in order to save it.GOP Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, head of the Ways and Means Committee, insisted Thursday that Republicans won't be deterred by the politics, even though Donald Trump won election as president on promises to protect the popular health care program for older Americans, and Democrats are already warning of a "war on seniors."

"Democrat tactics of 'Mediscare' have been around a long time. They've stopped working," Brady told The Associated Press in an interview in the Capitol. "Voters have figured out Republicans want to save Medicare for the long term, and they know that those who say everything's just fine with it aren't leveling with them."

the party might try to pass "premium support," the controversial approach that would, over time, remake Medicare into a voucher-like program that would force seniors to buy health insurance on the open market.

several Senate Republicans said this week that they would not be eager to make Medicare changes their top priority, especially given their plans to move quickly to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law.

Medicare, in place more than a half-century, is considered the government's flagship health insurance program. It covers about 57 million people, including 48 million seniors and 9 million disabled people. Medicare has strong public support across party lines and generations.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/key-house-chairman-gop-will-change-medicare-to-save-it?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

[johnsmith]

Trash won't fix shit, dreamer.

BigInsurance is just one of the many ways BigCorp, BigFinance, etc FLEECE Americans of their wealth.

There's NOTHING to be done.

Human-Americans are completely powerless, disenfranchised opposite Corporate-Americans and the whore politicians they own.

Trash's CONNED supporters won't be able to do anything when (well actually IF, seeing how fucking stupid they are) they realize that Trash, Repug establishment working for the corporatocracy will have screwed them even more by 2020 than now.

Wait....so the ACA is a way for big pharm to fleece Americans....you said it, not me.

[boutons_deux]

Wait....so the ACA is a way for big pharm to fleece Americans....you said it, not me.

ACA never said it was setting BigInsurance or BigPharm prices. IIRC, there was some deal with BigPharma, but BigPharma still got paid.

You People's red herring is that "ACA hasn't reduced prices", but ACA was never about that. If ACA had even talked about limiting costs (profits to BigHealthcare), ACA would have never been passed ( "Harry-and-Louise'd" ).

In fact, a report this week says healthcare spending is way up, because more people under ACA are getting (more) health care.

$10K/person, $3.2T for USA. That's BigHealthCare setting prices, not ACA.

The fundamental problem is for-profit health care, not ACA.

And the Repugs will never touch for-profit health care. In fact, the Repug destruction of ACA and Medicare is to INCREASE the profits of BigHealthCare out of the pockets of citizens.

[rmt]

An 18k person company self-insures - that's why you don't feel as much of a change in premiums as others. A small company does not have that luxury. It is at the mercy (like Obamacare website) of whatever rating you live in (which includes more "sicker" people) than an employed, working big company. In a big company, the young people help bring the premiums down - in the marketplace, young people just are not buying the policies. But ALL policies (whether employer-sponsored or exchanges) are, on the whole, more expensive because they MUST cover 10 essential benefits like maternity, pediatric dental/vision, etc regardless of whether you can use it. Before, people could buy just catastrophic cover and pay routine bills or buy lesser coverage policies (what they felt they need) - not useless coverage that they could never use. ACA also mandated a maximum of 3x-1 for old to young people instead of (iirc) 5x-1 previously - totally rips off young people.

And, boutons, I'll remind you again of the 85-15% rule - insurance companies can only use 15% to cover expenses, profit, etc - they have to refund the rest if they spend less than 85% on healthcare.

[boutons_deux]

"85-15% rule"

... so the insurance companies keep raising their prices, like they've done for decades, to keep their 85% going up.

how many insurance companies have paid up under that rule and how much have they paid?

[rmt]

"85-15% rule"

... so the insurance companies keep raising their prices, like they've done for decades, to keep their 85% going up.

how many insurance companies have paid up under that rule and how much have they paid?




It's their 15% - do you really think that they are deliberately raising the price (and risk losing more customers)? They want quantity - that's the tradeoff they made with Obama - that and millions more under Medicaid - readymade customers. The only way for ACA to work as currently written was for the mandate (of not buying coverage) to be equal to the average policy price - high enough to force everybody to buy in and IRS has to have teeth to enforce - not the current collecting if you over withhold.

[rmt]

Even then, if young, healthy or people with no assets decided it's still not worth it, what would IRS do - audit them all and fine? Impossible.

[rmt]

It's a waste of money for ALL policies to be mandated to have what government considers 10 essential benefits that we don't want or need. Allow catastrophic insurance to be sold. Allow pre-existing conditions with the same "continuous coverage" that employer-sponsored insurance and COBRA now enjoy. Allow HSA for each person from birth - allow tax-free funding - and passing on HSAs to heirs. Allow anybody to fund another's HSA (parents, relatives, friends, acquaintances, charities) either with tax-free funds or from their own HSA when disaster strikes.

I don't think single, able-bodied people without kids should be on Medicaid or force them to work for it. Block fund money to the states for Medicaid/poor. Legislate that health care providers must post their prices. Tort reform - loser pays (that'll cut down on frivolous lawsuits). Comparison shop for non-emergency healthcare - yes, there are $80 bilateral mammograms or $59 Comprehensive Wellness Profile* - cash or HSA debit (no middleman).

* https://www.directlabs.com/?tabid=2492

Well, Direct Labs does take credit cards so I guess there is the cc company middleman.

[SnakeBoy]

Because I agree in the sense that ACA is seriously flawed. But the flaws are because of the compromise Obama agreed to that allows insurance companies to dictate prices. Obama and his healthcare act aren't technically the enemies here. The enemy is, and always has been, the insurance companies. Single Payer is the only answer.

:toast Unicorn approved

[rmt]

Because I agree in the sense that ACA is seriously flawed. But the flaws are because of the compromise Obama agreed to that allows insurance companies to dictate prices. Obama and his healthcare act aren't technically the enemies here. The enemy is, and always has been, the insurance companies. Single Payer is the only answer.

Obama and the ACA are at fault too. LOL at him thinking that young people are going buy in from the goodness of their hearts to pay for the old and sick. Stupid to force all policies to carry the 10 essential benefits - makes them TOO expensive.

Single payer will dramatically reduce development in drugs, medical devices, medical advances. No one will put up research money if there is no profit in it. The best and brightest will flee to other fields - do you think they'll accept the pittance the government will set with their huge student debt from medical schools. Some still don't get it - they think that people are gonna act for the general good of society - no, it's about the money whether it's the young or corporations regarding research.

[boutons_deux]

Single payer will dramatically reduce development in drugs, medical devices, medical advances.

goddam, you're stupid.

For years, BigPharma spends twice as much on marketing as it does on research, to corrupt doctors, and to convince sheeple that their health depends on taking pills.

They also spend $Bs on keeping generics off the market.

And much of that research is spent tweaking slightly their patented drugs to extend the patents.

goddam, you're stupid.

[Shastafarian]

I have nothing of intelligence to add so I'll just parrot a catch phrase to try and undermine someone's opinionYeah, we know.


Obama and the ACA are at fault too. LOL at him thinking that young people are going buy in from the goodness of their hearts to pay for the old and sick. Stupid to force all policies to carry the 10 essential benefits - makes them TOO expensive. LOL yeah that's so obviously his fault, even though he was a strong proponent of single payer and only had to abandon it because of people in government who think like you.


Single payer will dramatically reduce development in drugs, medical devices, medical advances. No one will put up research money if there is no profit in it. The best and brightest will flee to other fields - do you think they'll accept the pittance the government will set with their huge student debt from medical schools. Some still don't get it - they think that people are gonna act for the general good of society - no, it's about the money whether it's the young or corporations regarding research.
Do you have any evidence to back this up? Not sure why I'm asking since I know you don't. How are countries like Japan, Germany, and England doing in terms of medical research? Hell even shithole CUBA developed a viable lung cancer vaccine YEARS AGO. America is the greatest! But paying for its citizens' healthcare, like most other industrialized nations, is out of the question! It should be fun to see your thoughts once all of this comes crashing down and you're left with a husband who can no longer secure government contracts (only for his wife to complain incessantly about them).

[boutons_deux]

In fact just this year our insurer raised our premiums another 146% forcing us to hit the market.



ACA didn't raise your premiums, BigInsurance did, for more profits for investors, as they always have for decades and always will.

Hilarious that you think voucherizing Medicare and Medicaid or whatever the fuck the Repugs end up screwing America with, will reduce the prices and profits. Repugs will force Americans, including you rightwing dumbfucks, of all ages to pay more.

[Axl Rose]

Ryan is a follower not a leader, Medicare isn't going anywhere

[johnsmith]

ACA didn't raise your premiums, BigInsurance did, for more profits for investors, as they always have for decades and always will.

Hilarious that you think voucherizing Medicare and Medicaid or whatever the fuck the Repugs end up screwing America with, will reduce the prices and profits. Repugs will force Americans, including you rightwing dumbfucks, of all ages to pay more.


its hilarious that you think there isn't a correlation between Obamacare and the insurance companies jacking up rates.

Again, I know you hate everyone that works for a living, but stop and use some critical thinking.

It was nice to get your mom off my insurance though.

[boutons_deux]

Ryan is a follower not a leader, Medicare isn't going anywhere

Medicare will be privatized, and your idol Don The Con will sign it without hesitation.

[Axl Rose]

Lol "will"

[boutons_deux]

its hilarious that you think there isn't a correlation between Obamacare and the insurance companies jacking up rates.

Again, I know you hate everyone that works for a living, but stop and use some critical thinking.

It was nice to get your mom off my insurance though.

Insurance rates go up every year, for decades. ACA is just pretext

[rmt]

Yeah, we know.

LOL yeah that's so obviously his fault, even though he was a strong proponent of single payer and only had to abandon it because of people in government who think like you.


Do you have any evidence to back this up? Not sure why I'm asking since I know you don't. How are countries like Japan, Germany, and England doing in terms of medical research? Hell even shithole CUBA developed a viable lung cancer vaccine YEARS AGO. America is the greatest! But paying for its citizens' healthcare, like most other industrialized nations, is out of the question! It should be fun to see your thoughts once all of this comes crashing down and you're left with a husband who can no longer secure government contracts (only for his wife to complain incessantly about them).

It's not my fault Obama couldn't control his Democrats and get single payer through when he had both chambers - remember not a single Republican vote needed for ACA.

Wow, wishing ill/for things to come crashing down. Good luck with that single payer - first Vermont, then Colorado has decided against it.

[rmt]

Insurance rates go up every year, for decades. ACA is just pretext

Not like this - along with the drastic increase in deductibles, copays, narrowing of networks and sometimes only 1 insurer available.

[johnsmith]

Insurance rates go up every year, for decades. ACA is just pretext

Lol....ok man...the huge increase in everything that coincided with the ACA is exactly like it's always been and it's only in my imagination as well as a huge swath of the middle class.....weird that you guys lost the election.

[boutons_deux]

"everything that coincided with the ACA"

yep, coincidence is proof. But when dealing with BigCorp, assume they're lying (raising rates with ACA as cover).

[boutons_deux]

Fleecing by BigHealthCare is gonna get much worse.

Insurers’ Flawed Directories Leave Patients Scrambling for In-Network Doctors

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/03/us/inaccurate-doctor-directories-insurance-enrollment.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

and the Repugs mysterious, unknowable ACA replacement policies will enable the worsening

And there's absolutely nothing Human-Americans can do to fix it, or even stop it.

Bend over, grab your ankles, The Doc Will Rape You Now.

[Shastafarian]

It's not my fault Obama couldn't control his Democrats and get single payer through when he had both chambers - remember not a single Republican vote needed for ACA.Except that's not what would happen. He did not have a super majority. Nice try though!


Wow, wishing ill/for things to come crashing down. Good luck with that single payer - first Vermont, then Colorado has decided against it.
I hope you're not teaching your kids reading comprehension. I said it should be fun once it happens. Not wishing for it to happen because I already know it will happen lol

I think it's actually much more despicable to root for people NOT to have healthcare. You know, like you do!

[rmt]

Except that's not what would happen. He did not have a super majority. Nice try though!


I hope you're not teaching your kids reading comprehension. I said it should be fun once it happens. Not wishing for it to happen because I already know it will happen lol

I think it's actually much more despicable to root for people NOT to have healthcare. You know, like you do!

From Wikipedia:

With the Republican Senate minority vowing to filibuster, 60 votes would be necessary to pass the Senate.[155] At the start of the 111th Congress, Democrats had only 58 votes; the Senate seat in Minnesota ultimately won by Al Franken was still undergoing a recount, while Arlen Specter was still a Republican (he became a Democrat in April, 2009).

Negotiations were undertaken attempting to satisfy moderate Democrats and to bring Republican senators aboard; particular attention was given to Republicans Bennett, Enzi, Grassley and Snowe. On July 7 Franken was sworn into office, providing a potential 60th vote. On August 25 Ted Kennedy—a longtime healthcare reform advocate—died. Paul Kirk was appointed as Senator Kennedy's temporary replacement on September 24.

After the Finance Committee vote on October 15, negotiations turned to moderate Democrats. Majority leader Harry Reid focused on satisfying centrists. The holdouts came down to Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who caucused with Democrats, and conservative Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson. Lieberman's demand that the bill not include a public option[139][156] was met,[157] although supporters won various concessions, including allowing state-based public options such as Vermont's Green Mountain Care.[157][158]


Senate vote by state.
Democratic yes (58)
Independent yes (2)
Republican no (39)
Republican not voting (1)
The White House and Reid addressed Nelson's concerns[159] during a 13-hour negotiation with two concessions: a compromise on abortion, modifying the language of the bill "to give states the right to prohibit coverage of abortion within their own insurance exchanges", which would require consumers to pay for the procedure out of pocket if the state so decided; and an amendment to offer a higher rate of Medicaid reimbursement for Nebraska.[133][160] The latter half of the compromise was derisively termed the "Cornhusker Kickback"[161] and was repealed in the subsequent reconciliation amendment bill.

On December 23, the Senate voted 60–39 to end debate on the bill: a cloture vote to end the filibuster. The bill then passed, also 60–39, on December 24, 2009, with all Democrats and two independents voting for it, and all Republicans against (except Jim Bunning, who did not vote).

My apologies - it was an independent who demanded no public option and voted for ACA without it. Still - no republican voted for it.

I have no worries about my kids' reading comprehension. I have no objection to people having healthcare - I just don't want to pay for theirs.

[Shastafarian]

From Wikipedia:

With the Republican Senate minority vowing to filibuster, 60 votes would be necessary to pass the Senate.[155] At the start of the 111th Congress, Democrats had only 58 votes; the Senate seat in Minnesota ultimately won by Al Franken was still undergoing a recount, while Arlen Specter was still a Republican (he became a Democrat in April, 2009).

Negotiations were undertaken attempting to satisfy moderate Democrats and to bring Republican senators aboard; particular attention was given to Republicans Bennett, Enzi, Grassley and Snowe. On July 7 Franken was sworn into office, providing a potential 60th vote. On August 25 Ted Kennedy—a longtime healthcare reform advocate—died. Paul Kirk was appointed as Senator Kennedy's temporary replacement on September 24.

After the Finance Committee vote on October 15, negotiations turned to moderate Democrats. Majority leader Harry Reid focused on satisfying centrists. The holdouts came down to Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who caucused with Democrats, and conservative Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson. Lieberman's demand that the bill not include a public option[139][156] was met,[157] although supporters won various concessions, including allowing state-based public options such as Vermont's Green Mountain Care.[157][158]


Senate vote by state.
Democratic yes (58)
Independent yes (2)
Republican no (39)
Republican not voting (1)
The White House and Reid addressed Nelson's concerns[159] during a 13-hour negotiation with two concessions: a compromise on abortion, modifying the language of the bill "to give states the right to prohibit coverage of abortion within their own insurance exchanges", which would require consumers to pay for the procedure out of pocket if the state so decided; and an amendment to offer a higher rate of Medicaid reimbursement for Nebraska.[133][160] The latter half of the compromise was derisively termed the "Cornhusker Kickback"[161] and was repealed in the subsequent reconciliation amendment bill.

On December 23, the Senate voted 60–39 to end debate on the bill: a cloture vote to end the filibuster. The bill then passed, also 60–39, on December 24, 2009, with all Democrats and two independents voting for it, and all Republicans against (except Jim Bunning, who did not vote).

My apologies - it was an independent who demanded no public option and voted for ACA without it. Still - no republican voted for it.I misspoke. He would not* have had a super majority with a single payer law to be voted on.


I have no worries about my kids' reading comprehension. I have no objection to people having healthcare - I just don't want to pay for theirs.I mean this was obvious. Everyone here knows you only care about money (and jesus).

[boutons_deux]

Ben "horse's ass" Nelson was an Insurance industry shill, toady, and after Congress went on to be an insurance commissioner. iow, DINO.

Lieberman is owned by the insurance companies in CT

[boutons_deux]

Donald Trump now parroting Paul Ryan, which could mean the end of Medicare—and Trump’s popularity (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/16/1600349/-Donald-Trump-now-parroting-Paul-Ryan-which-could-mean-the-end-of-Medicare-and-Trump-s-popularity)

He's now embracing privatizing Medicare.

Oh, and decimating Medicaid.


House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has championed these ideas for years. Trump has not. In fact, in a 2015 interview (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/media/why-donald-trump-wont-touch-your-entitlements) his campaign website highlighted, he vowed that "I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid."

But the health care agenda on Trump's transition website, which went live Thursday,

vows (https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/healthcare.html) to "modernize Medicare" and allow more "flexibility" for Medicaid.

In Washington, those are euphemisms for precisely the kind of Medicare and Medicaid plans Ryan has long envisioned.

And while it's never clear what Trump really thinks or how he'll act, it sure looks like

both he and congressional Republicans are out to undo Lyndon Johnson's health care legacy, not just Barack Obama's. […]

It's difficult to be precise about the real-world effects, because the Republican plans for replacing existing government insurance programs remain so undefined. Ryan's "A Better Way" proposal is a broad, 37-page outline without dollar figures, and Senate Republican leaders have never produced an actual Obamacare "replacement" plan.


However, Ryan has consistently been very clear and detailed on a couple of things:

Medicare privatization—turning it into a voucher program, and

turning Medicaid into a block-grant where states get to choose what to do with a chunk of money that will, over time, diminish.

And it sure looks like Trump has decided to embrace that.

Which is kind of crazy, because Trump above all else wants to be popular. This isn't going to be popular.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/16/1600349/-Donald-Trump-now-parroting-Paul-Ryan-which-could-mean-the-end-of-Medicare-and-Trump-s-popularity?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

You Trash fellators are gonna see that ...

The Great Boutons' prediction that Trash will sign off on EVERY SINGLE establishment Repug law, reg,

what the fuck ever the establishment Repugs want. :lol

Trash's priority is self-enrichment, self-aggrandisement, not his conned, demagogued voters

[boutons_deux]

More Problems for Ryan's "Replace and Run"

The far-right 'Freedom Caucus' in the House is signaling it won't go along with (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/freedom-caucus-obamacare-replacement) Paul Ryan's "Repeal and Delay" plan to repeal Obamacare.

As I've said, I think the bigger challenge is going to come in the Senate.

But it may not be that easy for Ryan in the House either.

The key to remember here is that there is no reason to "delay" other than gaming the politics or, more importantly, the inability to come up with a politically palatable replacement. None.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-problems-for-ryan-s-replace-and-run?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Certainly, the Dems, in the Senate, have said they will obstruct any privatization of Medicare.

[boutons_deux]

Corker On Obamacare Replacement: Why Put It Off For Three Years?


Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) seemed to be leaning toward a strategy to repeal and replace Obamacare simultaneously Tuesday, something that is being pushed by House conservatives in the Freedom Caucus.

"Why would we put off for three years doing what we know we have to do?" :lol Corker told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

"It doesn't seem to me that it would really take that long to come up with a replacement and so that is the debate. Are we better off through reconciliation, ending it in three years and then working toward that? You know that is a long time. Momentum can get lost. Or are we better off on the front end right now just replacing it and being done with it," Corker said,

"You really do have to have 60 votes to replace ... President-elect Trump mentioned, I thought wisely during the campaign, that replacement and repeal should be done simultaneously."


Momentum can get lost. Or are we better off on the front end right now just replacing it and being done with it," Corker said, emphasizing again he was looking forward to hearing from Pence on the issue
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/corker-on-aca-replace-why-put-it-off-for-three-years?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Repugs have had 6 years to come up with plan! :lol

"3 years" puts screwing up 10Ms of Trash supporters AFTER 2018 mid-terms

[boutons_deux]

REPORT: Under GOP O'care Repeal Plan, Number Of Uninsured Would Double

Taking into account the two or so year delay GOP lawmakers say they will include in the repeal bill, the non-partisan think tank estimates that in 2019 the number of uninsured nonelderly people would rise from about 29 million to nearly 59 million.

The report also notes that since the 2015 version of the legislation repealed the individual mandate right away while delaying other repeal aspects, some impacts of the version the GOP might pass could be felt right away.

"The effects would begin in 2017 but would likely accelerate in 2018," the report said. "Any changes to the market rules, mandate, or financial assistance after premiums are set for the plan year would significantly disrupt coverage and care and would cause private financial losses for households and insurers."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/under-gop-obamacare-repeal-plan-uninsured-rate-would-double?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Repug policy will actually kill people, leave them suffering for want of health care, and cause more HIV/STI infections, unwanted pregnancies, dead/sick babies and mothers.

[boutons_deux]

Here’s how many people could die every year if Obamacare is repealed

Getting rid of Obamacare is a death sentence.

Nearly 36,000 people could die every year, year after year, if the incoming president signs legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act.

This figure is based on new data from the Urban Institute examining how many people will become uninsured (http://www.urban.org/research/publication/implications-partial-repeal-aca-through-reconciliation) if the law is repealed, as well as a study of mortality rates (https://thinkprogress.org/study-details-deadly-consequences-of-gutting-obamacare-ce2005f01b93#.b5qo7x4iv) both before and after the state of Massachusetts enacted health reforms similar to Obamacare.

https://thinkprogress.org/heres-how-many-people-could-die-every-year-if-obamacare-is-repealed-ae4bf3e100a2#.a0vz9oilj

[boutons_deux]

Paul Ryan suddenly not so gung-ho on immediately privatizing Medicare (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/6/1607890/-Paul-Ryan-suddenly-not-so-gun-ho-on-immediately-privatizing-Medicare)

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that

plans to overhaul Medicare remain "unresolved" :lol

in the lead-up to Donald Trump's inauguration."We haven't addressed that. That's an unresolved issue. I haven't even spoke with the president-elect about that," Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in a Monday interview. […]

Ryan suggested he has no plan of dropping the issue, but that

the timing and method for taking on Medicare is not yet decided. :lol

"We have

a future of insolvency with Medicare ( :lol LIE, and ACA has even increased the financial status of Medicare )

that needs to be addressed. How and when we address that is something we will decide later," he told the Journal-Sentinel.

the Trump transition team (https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/16/1600349/-Donald-Trump-now-parroting-Paul-Ryan-which-could-mean-the-end-of-Medicare-and-Trump-s-popularity) immediately replaced language on Trump's campaign website that said

"I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid" to the very Ryan-esque promise to "modernize Medicare."

this is one constant in his wish list for destroying the social compact.

But it is likely Ryan recognizing the reality that he'll have to fight with fellow Republicans to gut the essential program.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/06/1607890/-Paul-Ryan-suddenly-not-so-gun-ho-on-immediately-privatizing-Medicare?detail=email&link_id=3&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-trumps-air-force-one-tweet-appears-to-be-retaliation-against-boeing-for-hurting-his-fee-fees&email_referrer=trumps-air-force-one-tweet-appears-to-be-retaliation-against-boeing-for-hurting-his-fee-fees&email_subject=trumps-air-force-one-tweet-appears-to-be-retaliation-against-boeing-for-hurting-his-fee-fees

[boutons_deux]

What happened to

Repeal ACA on "Day One" ? :lol

The Repug House has repealed it 60+ times knowing Obama would veto it.

Now that Obama is soon out of the way "On Day One", the Repugs' alleged dicks go flaccid and turtle away. :lol

[boutons_deux]

The potential costs of Tom Price as HHS secretary

Price, an orthopedic surgeon, has offered many replacement plans of unmatched detail. His Empowering Patients First Act was 242 pages long (http://tomprice.house.gov/sites/tomprice.house.gov/files/HR%202300%20Empowering%20Patients%20First%20Act%20 2015.pdf). It offers a market-based vision for American health care, restricting government involvement.

His plan, however detailed, lacks specifics about what will happen to the 20 million or so who gained insurance coverage under the ACA.

This includes people who have preexisting conditions and those who rely on Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides insurance to poor children, pregnant women of a certain income level as well as the disabled and blind under 65.

Price’s policies could also limit access to care for children, women and for many people of all ages with chronic and mental illnesses.

One of the main pillars of Price’s plan is tax credits based on age to individuals who wish to buy health insurance in the private market. Importantly, this

proposal assumes that those who are younger will also be healthier, thus requiring less coverage.

However, there has been a rise from in the prevalence of chronic illnesses among children, from 12.8 percent in 1994 to 26.6 percent in 2006 (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/717030).

Also, incidence of type 2 diabetes and teen depression has increased. Mental health conditions often have an age-of-onset in the teens and 20s (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1925038/).

Yet both age groups are allotted the lowest tax credits in the Price plan, and more

children from lower- and middle-income households may struggle to obtain needed coverage.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/the-potential-costs-of-tom-price-as-hhs-secretary/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

The article is long and complex, because health care for 300M+ Americans is complex.

So I don't expect you know-nothing rightwingnutjobs to read it. Your naive fantasies are more fun

Repeal and replace ACA on "Day One"? :lol

six years after ACA, Repugs have got nothing as replacement. Hillary losing has called Repugs "we-hate-ACA" bluff, proving Repugs are holding a losing hand.

[boutons_deux]

Take a wild guess who the largest victims of repealing Obamacare may be? (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/7/1608547/-Take-a-wild-guess-who-the-largest-victims-of-repealing-Obamacare-may-be)

The number of uninsured people would rise from 28.9 million to 58.7 million in 2019, an increase of 29.8 million people (103 percent).

...Eighty-two percent of the people becoming uninsured would be in working families, 38 percent would be ages 18 to 34, and 56 percent would be non-Hispanic whites.

Eighty percent of adults becoming uninsured would not have college degrees.


Let's look at those stats again, shall we?



29.8 million people would lose their healthcare coverage.
82% of those who would lose their healthcare coverage are in working families.
56% of those who would lose their healthcare coverage are non-Hispanic whites.
80% of those who would lose their healthcare coverage don't have college degrees.


Now I realize that there's not going to be 100% overlap between these three stats (some of the non-Hispanic whites might be part of the 20% who have college degrees, etc), but taken at face value:



82% of 29.8 million = 24.4 million
56% of 24.4 million = 13.7 million
80% of 13.7 million = 10.9 million


Yes, assuming there's 100% overlap here, it sounds like up to 10.9 million of those who would lose their healthcare coverage under a Republican repeal of the Affordable Care Act are...wait for it......White Working Class.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/08/1608547/-Take-a-wild-guess-who-the-largest-victims-of-repealing-Obamacare-may-be?detail=email&link_id=8&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-trump-goes-off-on-carrier-workers-who-lost-their-jobs-they-should-have-spent-more-time-working&email_referrer=trump-goes-off-on-carrier-workers-who-lost-their-jobs-they-should-have-spent-more-time-working___140837&email_subject=take-a-wild-guess-who-the-largest-victims-of-repealing-obamacare-may-be
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/08/1608547/-Take-a-wild-guess-who-the-largest-victims-of-repealing-Obamacare-may-be?detail=email&link_id=8&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-trump-goes-off-on-carrier-workers-who-lost-their-jobs-they-should-have-spent-more-time-working&email_referrer=trump-goes-off-on-carrier-workers-who-lost-their-jobs-they-should-have-spent-more-time-working___140837&email_subject=take-a-wild-guess-who-the-largest-victims-of-repealing-obamacare-may-be

[boutons_deux]

The gravy for Republicans in repealing Obamacare as fast as they can—the tax cut for the rich (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/9/1609179/-The-gravy-for-Republicans-in-repealing-Obamacare-as-fast-as-they-can-the-huge-tax-cut-for-the-rich)

One of the things Obamacare did, and did effectively, was pay for providing health insurance to millions by increasing taxes on a relative handful of high-income Americans.

The fact that those tax hikes will go away along with health insurance for 30 million people (https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/08/1608826/-Republican-s-repeal-plan-could-make-30-million-uninsured-more-than-pre-Obamacare) helps explain why Republican leadership is hell-bent on doing it (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/surprise-repealing-obamacare-includes-a-big-tax-cut-for-the-rich?utm_content=buffera7615&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer) as soon as possible.

Two taxes that will be presumably axed with the law affect only those making $200,000 or more.

The break the ACA repeal will bring to those taxpayers will amount to a $346 billion tax cut (https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-2016/costestimate/hr3762senatesubstitutemcg15912.pdf) in total over 10 years, according to the CBO report on the 2015 repeal legislation GOP lawmakers say they’ll be using as their model next year.

As University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley pointed out (http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/the-rich-are-about-to-get-a-big-tax-cut/) on the Incidental Economist blog, this comes as Trump and his surrogates promised that any major tax cut for the rich will be offset by closing their deductions, which would not be the case with the cuts in the ACA repeal.

"That $346 billion represents about $1,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Every cent will go into the pockets of people making more than $200,000 per year," Bagley wrote. […]

"Repealing the Affordable Care Act is a way to give wealthy people a fairly substantial tax cut without that necessarily being the largest headline," Harry Stein, the director of fiscal policy at the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress, told TPM. […] “

To me personally, that’s the best part about repealing Obamacare,” Ryan Ellis, former tax policy director for Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, told Politico.

“Because on the health care side of it, you have this complicated ‘replace’ that you have to turn to after that, but on taxes, it’s all easy—it’s all dessert.”


All dessert for the top 0.1 percent, who are going to see tax savings of $154,000 annually (http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/model-estimates/individual-income-tax-expenditures-july-2016/t16-0169-repeal-38-percent-surtax-net).

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/09/1609179/-The-gravy-for-Republicans-in-repealing-Obamacare-as-fast-as-they-can-the-huge-tax-cut-for-the-rich?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

Why Obamacare enrollees voted for Trump


In Whitley County, Kentucky, the uninsured rate declined 60 percent under Obamacare. So why did 82 percent of voters there support Donald Trump?

Many expressed frustration that Obamacare plans cost way too much, that premiums and deductibles had spiraled out of control. And part of their anger was wrapped up in the idea that other people were getting even better, even cheaper benefits — and those other people did not deserve the help.

There was a persistent belief that Trump would fix these problems and make Obamacare work better. I kept hearing informed voters, who had watched the election closely, say they did hear the promise of repeal but simply felt Trump couldn’t repeal a law that had done so much good for them. In fact, some of the people I talked to hope that one of the more divisive pieces of the law — Medicaid expansion — might become even more robust, offering more of the working poor a chance at the same coverage the very poor receive.

The question is not whether Republicans will end coverage for millions. It is when they will do it. Oller’s three years of work could very much be undone over the next three years.

In southeastern Kentucky, that idea didn’t seem to penetrate at all — not to Oller, and not to the people she signed up for coverage.
“We all need it,” Oller told me when I asked about the fact that Trump and congressional Republicans had promised Obamacare repeal. “You can’t get rid of it.”

She sees other people signing up for Medicaid, the health program for the poor that is arguably better coverage than she receives and almost free for enrollees. She is not eligible for Medicaid because her husband works, and the couple will earn about $42,000 next year.

Medicaid is reserved for people who earn less than 138 percent of the poverty line — about $22,000 for a couple like the Atkinses. Ruby understands the Medicaid expansion is also part of Obamacare, and she doesn’t think the system is fair.

she and her husband have worked most their lives but don’t seem to get nearly as much help as the poorer people she knows. She told a story about when she used to work as a school secretary: “They had a Christmas program. Some of the area programs would talk to teachers, and ask for a list of their poorest kids and get them clothes and toys and stuff. They’re not the ones who need help. They’re the ones getting the welfare and food stamps. I’m the one who is the working poor.”

“I really think Medicaid is good, but I’m really having a problem with the people that don’t want to work,” she said. “Us middle-class people are really, really upset about having to work constantly, and then these people are not responsible.”

why the state had voting so resoundingly for politicians who want to dismantle Obamacare.

I kept hearing the same theory over and over again: Kentuckians just did not understand that what they signed up for was part of Obamacare. If they had, certainly they would have voted to save the law.

Kentucky had been deliberate in trying to hide Obamacare’s role in its coverage expansion.

“Polls at the time in Kentucky showed that Obamacare was disapproved of by maybe 60 percent of the people.”

They voted for Trump because they were concerned about other issues — and just couldn’t fathom the idea that this new coverage would be taken away from them.

“I guess I thought that, you know, he would not do this, he would not take health insurance away knowing it would affect so many peoples lives,” says Debbie Mills, an Obamacare enrollee who supported Trump. “I mean, what are you to do then if you cannot pay for insurance?”

http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/13/13848794/kentucky-obamacare-trump

Repugs, denigrated ACA as Obamacare (aka knitter-care for red and slave staters).

Ignorant people on ACA and Medicaid expansion voted for party that will destroy it.

[boutons_deux]

Why The GOP's Obamacare Repeal May Doom Their Replacement


So far, congressional leaders have signaled they're eying a version of the 2015 bill that delayed some aspects of Obamacare repeal for two years, but dismantled its taxes right away.

the lost tax revenues is perhaps the most telling sign that a viable replacement may be either impossible to achieve or a meager substitute.

As a Ryan Ellis, former tax policy director for Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, put it to Politico (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/obamacare-repeal-tax-cut-wealthy-232379), the tax cuts are “the best part about repealing Obamacare.”

“Because on the health care side of it, you have this complicated ‘replace’ that you have to turn to after that, but on taxes, it’s all easy — it’s all dessert,” he said.

“If you take all that revenue off the table, it means a replacement bill has to be very scaled back relative to the ACA or they have to find money from somewhere else to pay for it, both of which would involve difficult trade offs.”

“They are acknowledging by saying that,

that they have no intention of replacing with something that will provide the equivalent coverage and affordability,

“So what they’re looking at it will be a substantially degraded replacement plan in terms of the numbers of people who get coverage and the benefits for which they can get access to medical care,”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-repeal-republicans-replacement-tax-cut

iow, as announced, Repugs will enrich the rich, and screw Trash's supporters.

[rmt]

Why The GOP's Obamacare Repeal May Doom Their Replacement


So far, congressional leaders have signaled they're eying a version of the 2015 bill that delayed some aspects of Obamacare repeal for two years, but dismantled its taxes right away.

the lost tax revenues is perhaps the most telling sign that a viable replacement may be either impossible to achieve or a meager substitute.

As a Ryan Ellis, former tax policy director for Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, put it to Politico (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/obamacare-repeal-tax-cut-wealthy-232379), the tax cuts are “the best part about repealing Obamacare.”

“Because on the health care side of it, you have this complicated ‘replace’ that you have to turn to after that, but on taxes, it’s all easy — it’s all dessert,” he said.

“If you take all that revenue off the table, it means a replacement bill has to be very scaled back relative to the ACA or they have to find money from somewhere else to pay for it, both of which would involve difficult trade offs.”

“They are acknowledging by saying that,

that they have no intention of replacing with something that will provide the equivalent coverage and affordability,

“So what they’re looking at it will be a substantially degraded replacement plan in terms of the numbers of people who get coverage and the benefits for which they can get access to medical care,”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-repeal-republicans-replacement-tax-cut

iow, as announced, Repugs will enrich the rich, and screw Trash's supporters.




One of the major problems with Obamacare is that it provides unnecessary coverage that drives up the price. Half of us don't need maternity benefits, the other half doesn't need pediatric dental and vision, etc. LOL at AFFORDABILITY. Remove requirement for ACA's 10 essential benefits. Allow everybody to carry cheap, catastrophic insurance, allow tax free funding of HSAs and everyone comparison shops and covers routine expenses from the HSAs. Allow giving/receiving of HSA funds from/to anybody (charity included). Tort reform (loser pays) and block fund to the states for the truly sick. Leave employer sponsored insurance alone.

[boutons_deux]

Study: Obamacare repeal means a $197,000 tax cut for the 0.1 percent

Repealing Obamacare wouldn’t just end health coverage for 20 million people. It would also mean a significant tax cut (http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/repealing-affordable-care-act-would-cut-taxes-high-income-households-raise-taxes-many-others) for the wealthiest Americans.

These tax figures are important for understanding why Republicans are so committed to Obamacare repeal. It’s not just about delivering on a campaign promise to get rid of President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment. It’s also about providing a significant tax cut to the top 1 percent of earners.

The Affordable Care Act includes many new taxes, often levied on the highest-income Americans to help finance the expansion of health coverage for lower-income citizens. This includes a 3.8 percent tax on investment income over a certain threshold, as well as additional payroll taxes on high earners.

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Washington that provides analysis of tax issues in policy, finds in a new report that the net effect of Obamacare repeal is a massive tax cut for the rich.

TPC estimates that the top 1 percent of earners would get an average tax cut of $33,000 if Obamacare is repealed — and those in the top 0.1 percent would get an average tax cut of $197,000.

Meanwhile, those who earn less would actually see their taxes, on average, go up. This is because most of the tax subsidies to purchase insurance coverage through the marketplace go to low-income Americans. TPC estimates that, on average, Americans who are in the bottom quarter of earners would see their taxes increase by $90.

This, as TPC notes, masks a lot of variation. “Most low-income households would see no change at all in their taxes,” TPC’s Howard Gleckman writes. “But about 7 percent would get a tax cut of about $1,200 on average while

4 percent would face a very big tax hike, averaging nearly $3,900 — mostly because they’d lose the benefit of the premium subsidies.”
http://www.vox.com/2016/12/15/13967842/obamacare-tax-cut-wealthy

And ACA clients voted for Trash because their BigInsurance premium increases would be "fixed" by Winner Don The Con? :lol

Trash supporters gonna get SO FUCKED! :lol

[boutons_deux]

The FAILURE FOR AMERICA continues to romp along

1 Million More Americans Sign Up For Obamacare As GOP Gleefully Prepares To Take It Away

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/15/million-americans-sign-obamacare-gop-excitedly-prepares.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

Repugs playing with words

G.O.P. Plans to Replace Health Care Law With ‘Universal Access’

their goal in replacing President Obama’s health law was to guarantee “universal access” to health care and coverage, not necessarily to ensure that everyone actually has insurance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/politics/paul-ryan-affordable-care-act-repeal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Universal ACCESS? We have that already.

Ryan totally sucks at numbers. His budget's "magik asterisks" ain't gonna work anymore.

[boutons_deux]

Have a pre-existing condition? Wave goodbye to future health insurance, no matter what Trump says (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/19/1612767/-Have-a-pre-existing-condition-Wave-good-bye-to-future-health-insurance-no-matter-what-Trump-says)

l promise you about keeping Obamacare's protections for people with pre-existing conditions, it's not going to happen (http://www.cbpp.org/blog/republicans-cant-repeal-health-reform-and-keep-current-pre-existing-condition-protections).

Republicans are almost certainly going to use the same language this time around that they used in the reconciliation bill President Obama vetoed earlier this year.

Because to do otherwise would be way too much work and

that's the only thing they've actually been able to agree on in years, so that's what they're going with.

It repeals the individual mandate that requires people buy insurance or pay a fine and eliminates the subsidies and cost-sharing reductions in the bill after two years.

Here's why that matters:

Both elements are critical for insurers to meet the ACA requirements that they offer coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions and not charge them higher premiums.

Without the penalty and the subsidies, the individual market would destabilize and ultimately fail, as the Urban Institute's new analysis of the approach in the vetoed reconciliation bill shows.

Under that bill, which left the pre-existing condition protections and the other ACA "market reforms" in place, an estimated 4.3 million people (http://www.cbpp.org/blog/immediate-harm-even-from-delayed-health-reform-repeal-urban-institute-finds) would drop their marketplace coverage right away because they wouldn't face a penalty for being uninsured.

Healthier people would be the most likely to go without health insurance, delivering a financial hit to insurers that would lead many to stop offering marketplace plans or sharply raise premiums.

To keep healthier people’s premiums relatively low and encourage them to enroll, while eliminating the penalty for not having coverage and subsidies that defray people's costs, the protections for people with health conditions would need to be far weaker than they are today.

For example, even if insurers still couldn't deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, they'd likely be able to use other tools to shift costs onto sicker people, such as once again charging higher premiums based on a person's health status, excluding coverage of specific conditions, or refusing to cover key services and medications that people with high-cost conditions use.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/19/1612767/-Have-a-pre-existing-condition-Wave-good-bye-to-future-health-insurance-no-matter-what-Trump-says?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

The people most likely to lose in Obamacare repeal live in Trump country (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/19/1612698/-The-people-most-likely-to-lose-in-Obamacare-repeal-live-in-Trump-country)


More than 20 million Americans now depend on the ACA, also known as Obamacare, for health insurance. Data from Gallup indicate that a lot of those people live in counties that favored Mr. Trump.

The Gallup data, analyzed with the county typology from the American Communities Project, show that eight county types have seen increases in health insurance coverage greater than the national average.

Six of those types — representing about 77 million people or 33 million votes, a quarter of the total cast — sided with Mr. Trump, some by very large margins.

Some of the county categories listed in the table were particularly important to Mr. Trump.

Swaths of largely rural Graying America, Rural Middle America and Working Class Country counties make up large parts of Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the states that led to Mr. Trump’s victory. :lol


Do they deserve to lose their health insurance for falling for the bullshit Trump and Republicans pushed?

Frankly, yes.

If they voted for Trump and Republicans because

they didn't believe the GOP would do what it has been promising to do for six years (http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/13/13848794/kentucky-obamacare-trump)

then they're going to be waking up to a pretty harsh reality soon—and the full realization that elections really do have consequences.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/19/1612698/-The-people-most-likely-to-lose-in-Obamacare-repeal-live-in-Trump-country?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

As they have been doin' for decades, rightwing assholve vote Repug and screw themselves. :lol

[boutons_deux]

ACA repeal could cost California more than 200,000 jobs

Efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act could take away health insurance from millions of Californians, while also eliminating 209,000 jobs and costing the state economy $20.3 billion in GDP,

the state's Central Valley—which is already struggling with high unemployment—will be among California's hardest hit regions as residents there also rely heavily on Medi-Cal.

Not only would California experience substantial loss of jobs and GDP, but the researchers estimate that the state and local governments would lose a total of $1.5 billion in tax revenue (http://phys.org/tags/tax+revenue/) as a result of declines in income tax, sales tax, and other tax revenue.

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-aca-repeal-california-jobs.html

[boutons_deux]

GOP Congressdick Will Fix Healthcare, By Letting Your Kid Sleep On His Broken Bones

Let’s learn all about Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Michigan) and his ideas (http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/12/sons_broken_arm_bill_huizenga.html) about how it’s OUR responsibility to take charge of OUR OWN healthcare costs, by not being such pussies who just HAVE to take our kids to the emergency room when they’re severely hurt. Have your stupid kids never heard of walking it off? What about shaking it off?

He says his youngest son fell and injured his arm. Not sure if it was sprained or broken, he and his wife decided to wait until the next morning to take the 10-year-old to the doctor’s office, instead of going to the emergency room that night. The arm was broken.
“We took every precaution but decided to go in the next morning (because of) the cost difference,” Huizenga said. “If he had been more seriously injured, we would have taken him in. … When it (comes to) those type of things, do you keep your child home from school and take him the next morning to the doctor because of a cold or a flu, versus take him into the emergency room?

If you don’t have a cost difference, you’ll make different decisions.”

In this asshole’s America, your leg bone can be sticking out of your skin, and you’ll need to wait (wail and cry all you want, you little pussy) while

Father Knows Best conducts a cost analysis of whether it’s fair to our insurance companies to go to the emergency room to see your body is actually broken.

“At some point or another we have to be responsible or have a part of the responsibility of what is going on,” Huizenga said.

“Way too often, people pull out their insurance card and they say ‘I don’t know the difference or cost between an X-ray or an MRI or CT Scan.’ I might make a little different decision if I did know (what) some of those costs were and those costs came back to me.”

our fellow Americans who happen to be Republican congressmen who want to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, because hey, here’s a guy who’ll screw over his own kid in service of his ideology? Sounds like … most Republicans!

http://wonkette.com/609549/gop-congressdick-will-fix-healthcare-by-letting-your-kid-sleep-on-his-broken-bones-no-really

I bet he adores Russian Jew Ayn Rand as a Deep Thinker and Philosopher

Total deflecting Bullshit.

The fleecing of Americans by exorbitant costs of health care is not due to Americans over-using healthcare for kids broken bones, but due BigInsurance, BigPharma redistributing upward Americans' wealth to capitalists and due to over-priced doctors.

Employer's group insurance for a family of 4 is now $16K+ / year.

[boutons_deux]

Trump voters didn’t take him literally on Obamacare. Oops?

Vox senior editor Sarah Kliff (http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/13/13848794/kentucky-obamacare-trump) wrote a poignant account last week of her visit to Whitley County, Ky., where the uninsured rate declined 60 percent under Obamacare but 82 percent of voters supported Trump.

There, Kliff, a former Post colleague, found

Trump voters who were downright frightened that the president-elect would do exactly — literally — what he and Republicans promised: repeal Obamacare.
Among those she found was Trump voter Debbie Mills, a store owner whose husband awaits a lifesaving liver transplant; they got insurance through Obamacare, and Mills is hoping the law won’t be repealed.

“I don’t know what we’ll do if it does go away,” Mills said. “I guess I thought that, you know, [Trump] would not do this.

That they would not do this, :lol

would not take the insurance away. :lol

Knowing that it’s affecting so many people’s lives. I mean, what are you to do then if you cannot . . . purchase, cannot pay for the insurance?” :lol

Mills, who supported Trump for other reasons, figured Obamacare repeal was just talk. :lol

“I guess we really didn’t think about that, that he was going to cancel that or change that or take it away,” she said. “I guess I always just thought that it would be there. I was thinking that once it was made into a law that it could not be changed.” :lol

Others who didn’t take Trump literally may soon face the same dilemma.

The Urban Institute (http://www.urban.org/research/publication/implications-partial-repeal-aca-through-reconciliation) estimated this month that under the partial repeal plan previously passed by Republicans in Congress,

30 million people would lose insurance,

82 percent of them would be in working families and

56 percent would be white.

Among adults who would lose insurance, 80 percent don’t have college degrees.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-voters-didnt-take-him-literally-on-obamacare-oops/2016/12/20/46ef3cae-c6f3-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?utm_term=.24e7c701b7ce&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

Trash and the Repugs are going to fuck Trash's supporters so hard, so deep, and in so many ways and orifices

[boutons_deux]

CBO says crappy insurance won't count, complicating Republicans' Obamacare 'replacement' idea (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/22/1613130/-CBO-says-crappy-insurance-won-t-count-complicating-Republicans-Obamacare-replacement-idea)


CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) anticipate that insurers would respond to such legislation by offering new types of insurance products in the nongroup market, which are likely to differ from existing products in their depth and extent of health insurance benefits.

If there were no clear definition of what type of insurance product people could use their tax credit to purchase, some of those insurance products would probably not provide enough financial protection against high medical costs to meet the broad definition of coverage that CBO and JCT have typically used in the past—that is, a comprehensive major medical policy that, at a minimum, covers high-cost medical events and various services, including those provided by physicians and hospitals.

[…]If there were no clear definition of what type of insurance product people could use their tax credit to purchase, everyone who received the tax credit would have access to some limited set of health care services, at a minimum,

but not everyone would have insurance coverage that offered financial protection against a high-cost or catastrophic medical event;

CBO and JCT would not count those people with limited health benefits as having coverage.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/23/1613130/-CBO-says-crappy-insurance-won-t-count-complicating-Republicans-Obamacare-replacement-idea?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

Trump Has a Perfect Blueprint to Make the Poor Pay More for Medicaid: Mike Pence's Indiana

Participants call the program a "nightmare."

The architect of Indiana’s Medicaid expansion has been hired by the incoming Donald Trump administration. If what Seema Verma did to Mike Pence's state is any indication, Medicaid could soon become a more profitable enterprise on the backs of the poor and disabled.

Verma has been named to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. According to an NPR report, she was previously hired by Indiana Gov. Pence to create a “Republican version” of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

For a $5 million fee (https://fs.gmis.in.gov/IDOAcontracts/public/80287-003.pdf), Verma devised a system that requires the poor and disabled to pay a monthly fee for Medicare.

The program expanded Medicaid to an additional 246,000 people, who all pay from $1-$27 a month into individual health savings accounts.

If they don’t pay, they lose their health care. Those above the poverty level lose their health care for three months.

Anyone below the poverty level who can’t pay has their plan taken down to a lower level of care. The plan hasn’t gone into effect yet, however. They asked for a waiver to work out the kinks.

Arkansas had a similar program, but it was scrapped after a few years because it wasn’t worth it (http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2015/07/07/arkansas-health-independence-accounts-are-making-obamacare-worse/).

The state’s former surgeon general Joe Thompson explained that the GOP value of

“personal responsibility” sounds great politically, but in practice, it doesn’t work.

“We had about a year and a half of experience there, and candidly

the administrative cost and the operating aspects exceeded what the legislature subsequently perceived the benefit of that program was,”

Thompson says. So

they canceled the program.

“We lose too many folks along the way, and we may be causing more challenges than we’re solving,”

http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trump-has-perfect-blueprint-make-poor-pay-more-medicaid-mike-pences-indiana (http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trump-has-perfect-blueprint-make-poor-pay-more-medicaid-mike-pences-indiana)

The fallacy suggested here is that the Repugs' punish-the-poor-for-being-poor ideology GAF about whether their punishments achieve anything.

Sounds like that other Repug punish-the-poor program of drug testing people on public assistance, which costed more than it saved in denying benefits. The people on public assistance actually tested lower in drug use than the general population. :lol

[boutons_deux]

Why Paul Ryan wants to rush Obamacare repeal—to avoid all the pesky details of actual 'replacement' (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/28/1615145/-Why-Paul-Ryan-wants-to-rush-Obamacare-repeal-to-avoid-all-the-pesky-details-of-actual-replacement)

House Speaker Paul Ryan has lots of reasons for aiming to make good immediately on the GOP's favorite campaign pledge of the Obama era—repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But as we know, Republicans have never come up with anything more than a loose set of principles for a "replacement" (no dollar amounts, for example), and that may be exactly why Ryan is gunning for such quick legislative action, writes (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-repeal-delay_us_5862a42be4b0eb586487380d?section=us_polit ics) Jonathan Cohn.


Ryan and his allies aren’t slowing down, at least not so far, and there are likely two main reasons.

One is that the repeal bill is likely to dictate the size and shape of an eventual replacement, by stripping out Obamacare’s revenue ― including some $350 billion in taxes (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-tax-cut-millionaires_us_5841de41e4b09e21702e96b9) that fall exclusively on the wealthiest Americans.

Cutting upper-income taxes (http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/repealing-affordable-care-act-would-cut-taxes-high-income-households-raise-taxes-many-others) is a perennial priority for Republicans. But without that money at the disposal of lawmakers, it’s pretty much impossible to craft a conservative scheme that would come anywhere close to the scale of insurance coverage that Obamacare does. [...]

The other likely reason to rush a repeal vote would be to avoid public scrutiny of both its short- and long-term effects.


many of the ACA's features are actually very popular, even among Trump voters, as the following recent evaluation by the Kaiser Foundation shows.


http://images.dailykos.com/images/343895/large/Screen_Shot_2016-12-28_at_9.04.31_AM.png?1482945674

some top lines from news reports over the last several weeks:


The Obama administration announced that the number of people signing up for insurance through HealthCare.gov, the federal website that 39 states use to administer Obamacare plans, is even higher (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-enrollments-outpacing-last-years-sign-ups_us_585ae559e4b0d9a59456f61c) than last year. State-run sites such as Covered California (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2016/12/16/why-obamacare-enrollment-is-surging-in-california.html) are reporting similar surges.

An independent think tank, The Commonwealth Fund (http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Issue-Briefs/2016/Dec/State-Progress-Coverage-and-Access), published a study showing that fewer people are skipping medical care because of cost ― most likely because, thanks to the health care law, so many more people have health insurance.

Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/22/insurers-will-do-better-with-obamacare-in-2016--more-so-next-year.html) reported that insurers selling Obamacare plans are seeing better financial results this year, suggesting that premiums are finally coming into line with the actual medical expenses of their customers ― and that this year’s big rate hikes (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-premium-increases-2017_us_580e4bece4b02444efa486a6) may be a “one-time pricing correction.”



http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/28/1615145/-Why-Paul-Ryan-wants-to-rush-Obamacare-repeal-to-avoid-all-the-pesky-details-of-actual-replacement?detail=email&link_id=15&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-emerging-christian-pastor-to-president-obama-for-8-years-ive-watched-you-be-the-better-man&email_referrer=emerging-christian-pastor-to-president-obama-for-8-years-ive-watched-you-be-the-better-man___147447&email_subject=progressive-honor-roll-the-man-in-charge-of-nuclear-weapons

[boutons_deux]

Officials Warn Obamacare Repeal Could Spell Disaster For Their States

The repeal plans congressional Republicans have floated wouldn't likely take effect until 2019 or 2020. But already, governors and state legislatures are voicing concerns that repealing the ACA may leave millions of people uninsured, as well as take away some of the mechanisms that helped their states drastically slash their uninsured rates.

At the top of their list of concerns is the fact that the most likely blueprint in Congress for repeal, a 2015 bill (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-repeal-obama-will-veto) that President Barack Obama vetoed, would also repeal

federal funding for Medicaid expansion, which was estimated to have helped cover (http://kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/what-coverage-and-financing-at-risk-under-repeal-of-aca-medicaid-expansion/) 11 million adults across the country in 2015.

Ten Republican governors have taken advantage of the expansion, which was so successful in some places like Kentucky that, even though Gov. Matt Bevin (R) campaigned on scrapping the ACA, he simply made some tweaks to the program once he took office.

The Congressional repeal plan from 2015 would also repeal tax increases that were part of the ACA, likely shifting the burden for paying for health care from the federal government to individual states.

"Without that money, there is no way states could keep covering the 20 million people who have been covered under Obamacare," Larry Levitt, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told TPM.

"It is looking like pressure is going to shifted back to the states but potentially without the financial resources to really make it work,"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/states-grapple-with-what-will-happen-post-obamacare-repeal?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

BARAKHUSSEINOBAMAcare is looking more and more like a poison pill for the Repugs :lol

[rmt]

IMO, all those Repub governors who accepted Medicaid ACA expansion are breathing a sigh of relief - relief that Trump and Congress are gonna repeal Obamacare and they'll be able to wash their hands of the vast over-enrollment and overrun costs that the states will bear as fed govt steps back from funding.

[boutons_deux]

IMO, all those Repub governors who accepted Medicaid ACA expansion are breathing a sigh of relief - relief that Trump and Congress are gonna repeal Obamacare and they'll be able to wash their hands of the vast over-enrollment and overrun costs that the states will bear as fed govt steps back from funding.

Repugs don't know how to proceed, after 6 years, with a replacement.

One thing is sure: you Trash supporters on ACA are gonna get screwed badly.

[boutons_deux]

GOP preps swift Obamacare 'repeal' but might delay effects till after 2020 to avoid voter backlash (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/29/1615466/-GOP-preps-swift-Obamacare-repeal-but-might-delay-effects-till-after-2020-to-avoid-voter-backlash)

Republicans are debating how long to delay implementing the repeal.

Aides involved in the deliberations said some parts of the law may be ended quickly, such as its regulations affecting insurer health plans and businesses.

Other pieces may be maintained for up to three or four years, such as insurance subsidies and the Medicaid expansion.

Some parts of the law may never be repealed, such as the provision letting people under age 26 remain on a parent’s plan.

House conservatives want a two-year fuse for the repeal.

Republican leaders prefer at least three years, and there has been discussion of putting it off until after the 2020 elections, staffers said.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/29/1615466/-GOP-preps-swift-Obamacare-repeal-but-might-delay-effects-till-after-2020-to-avoid-voter-backlash?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

:lol fucking total dickless clowns

Day One! :lol

...and after the 2018 midterms.

[rmt]

Repugs don't know how to proceed, after 6 years, with a replacement.

One thing is sure: you Trash supporters on ACA are gonna get screwed badly.

bou, they don't have 60 votes in the Senate to repeal the whole thing. They can only repeal the $s part - not the stuff that's making it crazy expensive. I guess they're hoping to pick up the extra seats to 60 in 2018 and then they can get rid of the whole thing. But Ryan wants to defund ACA now - can never tell what's gonna happen 2 years from now. Trump - I don't think knows enough about the intricacies of the law - he' probably just wants the least amount of pain and bad publicity.

[boutons_deux]

bou, they don't have 60 votes in the Senate to repeal the whole thing. They can only repeal the $s part - not the stuff that's making it crazy expensive. I guess they're hoping to pick up the extra seats to 60 in 2018 and then they can get rid of the whole thing. But Ryan wants to defund ACA now - can never tell what's gonna happen 2 years from now. Trump - I don't think knows enough about the intricacies of the law - he' probably just wants the least amount of pain and bad publicity.

One thing is sure: you Trash supporters on ACA are gonna get screwed badly.

[boutons_deux]

Obamacare Repeal Will Wipe Out The Same Voters Who Supported Donald Trump

Studies are finding that repealing Obamacare will unleash a healthcare catastrophe on the very same people who voted for Donald Trump.


The Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/12/19/trump-counties-would-see-big-impact-from-obamacare-repeal/) highlighted the findings of a Gallup/American Communities Project survey, “Swaths of largely rural Graying America, Rural Middle America and Working Class Country counties make up large parts of Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the states that led to Mr. Trump’s victory.”

Trump won with working class country voters by 46 points.

He won with graying American voters by 22 points.

He won evangelical hubs by 51 points.

Those three groups made up a 16.9% growth in the insured rate due to the ACA.

The LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-big-republican-states-could-have-a-lot-1480956074-htmlstory.html) noted that 4 of the 5 states that receive the most subsidies (North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Georgia) were won by Trump.

Florida alone will lose $5.2 billion in ACA subsidies.

These numbers aren’t including the disaster that is set to occur in states that Donald Trump won if Republicans immediately kill the Medicaid expansion subsidies to the states.

A 2009 study (http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/)found that 45,000 annual deaths in the United States were linked to a lack of affordable healthcare before the ACA.

Those numbers can be expected to return or reach even higher levels if the ACA is repealed, and the political problem for Republicans is that the areas that are likely to be the hardest hit are those that were carried by Trump in 2016.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/29/obamacare-repeal-wipe-voters-supported-donald-trump.html

[boutons_deux]

Here’s how many people could die every year if Obamacare is repealed

Getting rid of Obamacare is a death sentence.

Nearly 36,000 people could die every year, year after year, if the incoming president signs legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act.

This figure is based on new data from the Urban Institute examining how many people will become uninsured (http://www.urban.org/research/publication/implications-partial-repeal-aca-through-reconciliation) if the law is repealed, as well as a study of mortality rates (https://thinkprogress.org/study-details-deadly-consequences-of-gutting-obamacare-ce2005f01b93#.b5qo7x4iv) both before and after the state of Massachusetts enacted health reforms similar to Obamacare.

In fairness, 36,000 is a high estimate of the number of deaths that will result if Obamacare is repealed, as there is some uncertainty about how congressional Republicans will repeal the law.

Even in the best case scenario, however, a wholesale repeal of Obamacare may cause about 27,000 people to die every year who otherwise would have lived.

https://thinkprogress.org/heres-how-many-people-could-die-every-year-if-obamacare-is-repealed-ae4bf3e100a2#.b8xf3hk3j[/COLOR]

[boutons_deux]

These coal country voters backed Trump. Now they’re worried about losing Obamacare.

Did voters such as these know they were voting for this? After all, Trump promised countless times throughout the campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act, didn’t he?

If they are complaining about this now, don’t they have only themselves to blame?

The CNN segment (http://www.snappytv.com/tc/3552348) features people who live in Eastern Kentucky coal country and backed Trump because he promised to bring back coal jobs.

Now, however, they worry that a provision in the ACA that makes it easier for longtime coal miners with black lung disease to get disability benefits could get eliminated along with the law.

That provision shifted the burden (https://www.statnews.com/2016/11/28/trump-black-lung/) of proving that the disability was directly caused by work in the mines away from the victim.

Those benefits include financial and medical benefits (https://www.dol.gov/owcp/dcmwc/regs/compliance/blbenact.htm).

Some benefits now also extend to the widows of miners who had black lung disease — or pneumoconiosis, a lung illness associated with inhalation of coal dust — after their husbands die.

Other reporting has also confirmed widespread coal country worries (https://www.statnews.com/2016/11/28/trump-black-lung/) about losing these protections.

One man who worked in the mines for 35 years told CNN’s Miguel Marquez:


“When they eliminate the Obamacare, they may just eliminate all of the black lung program. It may all be gone. Don’t matter how many years you got.”


The widow of a deceased miner, who is now trying to get the benefits, said she doesn’t want to see Obamacare repealed, and even suggested Trump may be on the verge of betraying her and others in the region:


“If he don’t come across like he promised, he’s not gonna be there next time. Not if I can help it.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/12/27/these-coal-country-voters-backed-trump-now-theyre-worried-about-losing-obamacare/?postshare=5581482856685109&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.ef629cf59ea9

Coal companies profited from giving their miners black lung, but taxpayers picking up the medical care, now.

No doubt the Repugs will screw the black lung families with less care and more cost.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Warns GOP To Make Sure Dems 'Own' Obamacare Failure: 'Be Careful!'

"Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster," Trump tweeted, apparently warning Republicans to avoid acting in undue haste that might lead to poor optics.

"Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful!"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-republicans-make-sure-democrats-own-obamacare?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Ignorant as ever

Lying as ever

And you rightwingnutjobs "believe" all his lies.

[boutons_deux]

a tweet "thread" about ACA, Medicare, etc.

Warning: Repug lies and/or ignorance ahead.


AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, I'VE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO. (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/3/1616872/-AS-GOD-IS-MY-WITNESS-I-VE-NO-IDEA-WHAT-TO-DO)


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/3/1616872/-AS-GOD-IS-MY-WITNESS-I-VE-NO-IDEA-WHAT-TO-DO?detail=email&link_id=1&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-as-god-is-my-witness-ive-no-idea-what-to-do&email_referrer=as-god-is-my-witness-ive-no-idea-what-to-do&email_subject=as-god-is-my-witness-ive-no-idea-what-to-do

[boutons_deux]

Sanders Blows Up Trump Tweet To Press Him On Medicaid, Social Security Cuts
https://res.cloudinary.com/tpm/image/upload/c_fill,fl_keep_iptc,g_face,w_653,h_361/scm0r5a0kzl8bmlmk0od.jpg

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/596338364187602944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sanders-brings-trump-tweet-to-senate-floor?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

just another Trash lie, con job.

Trash will sign off Ryan's bills to destroy Medicare, fuckup Medicaid, and repeal ACA with a non-equivalent, all of which hurt his poor, old, rural, WHITE voters the most.

[boutons_deux]

Just 18 Percent of Americans Approve of the Congress Paul Ryan Leads

But Republicans are sticking with him.

https://www.thenation.com/article/just-18-percent-of-americans-approve-of-the-congress-paul-ryan-leads/

In their incredible hubris and stupidity, Repugs thought they could convince America to hate

("govt IS the problem" -- St Ronnie the Diseased)

and to want to destroy govt, Repugs thinking it wouldn't apply to them. :lol

And just wait until Repugs fuckup Medicare, SS, Medicaid, block OT threshold, refuse to raise minimum wage, etc, etc.

[CosmicCowboy]

There is no good end to Obama care. The preexisting condition genie is out of the bottle. You can't have that without mandating coverage. Why pay out the ass for insurance when you can wait until you have cancer and THEN go "buy" insurance to pay for it.

[boutons_deux]

Dear Congressional GOP: Don't Say You Weren't Warned. (including by your own experts) (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/3/1616722/-Dear-Congressional-GOP-Don-t-Say-You-Weren-t-Warned-including-by-your-own-experts)

A definitely-NOT-comprehensive selection of opinions regarding the Republican Party's imminent "Repeal & Delay" strategy for the Affordable Care Act:

What outside experts are saying about repeal and delay:

American Academy of Actuaries: “Repealing major provisions of the ACA would raise immediate concerns that individual market enrollment would decline, causing the risk pools to deteriorate and premiums to become less affordable. Even if the effective date of a repeal is delayed, the threat of a deterioration of the risk pool could lead additional insurers to reconsider their participation in the individual market.” [Letter to Congress, 12/7/16 (http://actuary.org/files/publications/HPC_letter_ACA_CSR_120716.pdf)]

Nick Gerhart (Iowa Republican Insurance Commissioner): “If you're going to repeal this, I hope that there's a replacement stapled to that bill.” [NPR, 11/21/16 (http://www.npr.org/2016/11/21/502918058/iowa-insurance-commissioner-outlines-potential-effects-of-repealing-obamacare)]

Governor Jay Inslee and Mike Kreidler (Washington Democratic Governor and Insurance Commissioner): “Decisions to cut funding before developing a replacement puts the health of Washingtonians at great risk through undermining and destabilizing their health care.” [Letter to Congress, 12/9/16 (http://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2016_12_09_ACA_Letter.pdf)]

Sabrina Corlette (Georgetown University): “The idea that you can repeal the Affordable Care Act with a two- or three-year transition period and not create market chaos is a total fantasy.” [New York Times, 12/3/16 (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/us/politics/obamacare-repeal.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news)]

Michael Cannon (Cato Institute): "What they are planning to do is absolutely insane.” [TPM, 12/18/16 (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/reality-sets-in-as-gop-cahart-course-to-rpeal-obamacare?utm_content=bufferb1fed&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer)]

Larry Levitt (Kaiser Family Foundation):


“The individual insurance market could collapse in between a repeal vote and a replacement vote” [TPM, 11/29/16 (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obamacare-repeal-and-delay-risks)].
“Any significant delay between repeal of the ACA and clarity over what will replace it would likely lead insurers to exit the marketplaces in droves” [Huffington Post, 12/1/16 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-repeal-and-delay_us_584042eee4b09e21702cfab9)].
"Republicans are in a bit of box here, because the individual mandate is an anathema to them, but repealing the individual mandate immediately while keeping the protections for people with pre-existing conditions would likely lead to immediate chaos in the insurance market" [TPM, 11/29/16 (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obamacare-repeal-and-delay-risks)].


Stuart Butler (formerly Heritage Foundation), Alice Rivlin (former CBO and OMB Director), Loren Adler (Brookings Institution): “If replacing the ACA is truly the goal, though, repealing it first without a replacement in hand is almost certainly a disastrous way to start. First, a reconciliation bill would likely destabilize the individual market and very possibly cause it to collapse in some regions of the country during the interim period before any replacement is designed…If no replacement plan materializes, the hollowed-out individual market – for people without access to employer-provided or public coverage – could be left in shambles.”
[B]
Topher Spiro (Center for American Progress): "Their strategy of repealing now and replacing later was designed to provide false assurance that everything would be okay. Now there's a growing awareness that in fact this strategy would cause a lot of chaos and perhaps even collapse the market before a replacement plan can be put into place." [TPM, 11/29/16 (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obamacare-repeal-and-delay-risks)]

Robert Laszewski (Health Care Consultant and ACA Critic): “Republicans are being awfully naive. They seem to be ignoring the risks in the transition period.” [Vox, 12/1/16 (http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/1/13807028/obamacare-repeal-delay-republicans)]

Former Senator Tom Daschle: “It sends all the wrong messages to the private sector…You gotta have the replacement before you have the repeal.” [Politico Pulsecheck Podcast, 12/1/16 (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/pulse-check-should-tom-price-run-hhs-while-running-obamacare-repeal-too-232089)]

Joshua Blackman (Professor and former Cato Institute Scholar): “Passing it by itself is politically expedient, but would create a series of headaches very quickly for the Republicans." [TPM, 12/18/16 (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/reality-sets-in-as-gop-cahart-course-to-rpeal-obamacare?utm_content=bufferb1fed&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer)]

Linda Blumberg, Matthew Buettgens, John Holahan (Urban Institute): “If Congress partially repeals the ACA with a reconciliation bill like that vetoed in January 2016…Significant market disruption would occur…Many, if not most, insurers are unlikely to participate in Marketplaces in 2018.” [Urban, 12/7/16 (http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/86236/2001013-the-implications-of-partial-repeal-of-the-aca-through-reconciliation.pdf)]

Judith Solomon (Center for Budget and Policy Priorities): “Many people likely would lose coverage before any Republican health plan was fully implemented.”

[CPBB, 12/5/16 (http://www.cbpp.org/health/commentary-gops-health-reform-strategy-amounts-to-repeal-without-replacement)]http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/03/1616722/-Dear-Congressional-GOP-Don-t-Say-You-Weren-t-Warned-including-by-your-own-experts?detail=email&link_id=8&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-as-god-is-my-witness-ive-no-idea-what-to-do&email_referrer=as-god-is-my-witness-ive-no-idea-what-to-do&email_subject=as-god-is-my-witness-ive-no-idea-what-to-do

[boutons_deux]

Why pay out the ass for insurance when you can wait until you have cancer and THEN go "buy" insurance to pay for it.

One good item in the Repugs' toilet of ideas was to require people to have coverage BEFORE they got sick, eg, continuous coverage.

[mavsfan1000]

Time for the end of Obamacare. Bye bye $1000 fine or $10,000 a year with huge deductibles.

[CosmicCowboy]

No good answer. In every other part of life people make economic choices. Some live in mansions and some live in shit apartments. Some drive Mercedes and some drive beaters. In Healthcare everyone thinks they deserve a Ferrari.

[boutons_deux]

In Healthcare everyone thinks they deserve a Ferrari.

You Lie.

You speaking for everybody?

Ms just want basic health care, ANY health care, without spending the rest of their lives paying for it.

[Splits]

No good answer. In every other part of life people make economic choices. Some live in mansions and some live in shit apartments. Some drive Mercedes and some drive beaters. In Healthcare everyone thinks they deserve a Ferrari.

This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've read on the internet in the past 3 days.

[CosmicCowboy]

You Lie.

You speaking for everybody?

Ms just want basic health care, ANY health care, without spending the rest of their lives paying for it.

How much is enough for someone else to spend to preserve your life? That's literally the million dollar question sometimes.

[CosmicCowboy]

This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've read on the internet in the past 3 days.

The hubris of the young and stupid.

[boutons_deux]

How much is enough for someone else to spend to preserve your life? That's literally the million dollar question sometimes.

Enough for the lifesavers to live decently. No need for a lifesaver to make an obscene $10K/hour, no need for a drug to cost an obscene $25K/month (there's a new drug out at that price range in the past couple weeks). The only "need" is for investors to profit from disease.

[CosmicCowboy]

Enough for the lifesavers to live decently. No need for a lifesaver to make an obscene $10K/hour, no need for a drug to cost an obscene $25K/month (there's a new drug out at that price range in the past couple weeks). The only "need" is for investors to profit from disease.

Oh...so Ferrari health care at Hyundai prices. Got it. Let them devote their life to medicine so when you get the wrong diseased dick in your ass they can save your life on the cheap.

[boutons_deux]

Oh...so Ferrari health care at Hyundai prices. Got it. Let them devote their life to medicine so when you get the wrong diseased dick in your ass they can save your life on the cheap.

WTF is Ferrari health care? and whatever it is, is it more successful, have better outcomes, than whatever the fuck Hyundai health care?

Why are US drugs prices at Ferrari level when the same drugs are at Toyota level in other countries? Because BigPharma is fucking America.

[Reck]

This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've read on the internet in the past 3 days.

Did you expect any less from Cosmicfagboy? He's the king of copying and pasting the recycled rightwing talking points.

I mean, who comes up with nonsense like everyone wants a ferrari and or whatever that shit means.

Fabbs level of intelligence. :lol

[CosmicCowboy]

:lol

Rock joins the loser convention that thinks the smart guys are just supposed to take care of them. You losers should have paid more attention in school.

[TheSanityAnnex]

Did you expect any less from Cosmicfagboy? He's the king of copying and pasting the recycled rightwing talking points.

I mean, who comes up with nonsense like everyone wants a ferrari and or whatever that shit means.

Fabbs level of intelligence. :lol
Fabbs do you know how to read a wikileak email release in chronological order?

[Reck]

Fabbs (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=3662) do you know how to read a wikileak email release in chronological order?

Tired of getting your ass lit on your own thread, TSA? :lmao

[Fabbs]

Fabbs do you know how to read a wikileak email release in chronological order?
Have not pursued.

[ElNono]

Oh...so Ferrari health care at Hyundai prices. Got it. Let them devote their life to medicine so when you get the wrong diseased dick in your ass they can save your life on the cheap.

We've been paying Ferrari prices for Hyundai outcomes for a long ass time... I won't tell you there's a silver bullet solution to this, because there's probably not, but the sooner everyone gets done figuring that out, the quicker we can move on to find a solution.

[boutons_deux]

Commentary: 'Legitimate' healthcare pricing would slash costs 33%

Under the current system, when patients ask the price of any service, they always receive the same answer: “What insurance do you have?” Billing is determined by how much can be extracted from each patient on a case by case basis.

So-called price transparency initiatives serve to perpetuate this system, in which patients are unable to determine their cost—as opposed to average prices or price ranges. Nothing in these transparency schemes alters the fact that prices can vary by a factor of 100 for the same service performed by the same provider. Ethically speaking, this is institutionalized fraud.

Reform is difficult because the healthcare industry spends more on lobbying (https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=i) than the defense, aerospace and the oil and gas industries combined.

The American public understands our predatory pricing system is morally and economically unjustifiable and is demanding change.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20161014/news/161019940

"Reform is difficult" ? :lol reform is IMPOSSIBLE.

Healthcare industry has $Ts in revenue per year, so it has the power to defend itself against "reform" while increasng its wealth-sucking, wealth redistribution upwards to capitalists, every year by many times the inflation rate, FOR DECADES.

Remember that the ACA "reform" was written by a health insurance exec/lobbyist.

[boutons_deux]

Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn's Obamacare Twitter Poll Backfires :lol

A Twitter poll by ardent Obamacare foe Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on whether the health-care law should be repealed backfired big-time Wednesday as lots more people — a whole lot more people — tweeted "No," rather than "Yes."

The Hill.com noted that Blackburn's cause probably wasn't helped by the fact that White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz retweeted the poll Tuesday to his more than 23,000 Twitter followers.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/republican-congresswoman-marsha-blackburn-s-obamacare-twitter-poll-backfires-n703271

Of course, a lot of MB's voters are so damn poor, uneducated, unplugged they don't have computers or smartphones, but they have health coverage thanks to the knitter they hate so much.

MB is what voters ALWAYS get when they vote god/guns/gays/abortion: they get screwed economically, and 1000s of them die.

[boutons_deux]

Apparently, Democrats saying “Donald Trump wants to make America sick again” really got under Trump’s skin

President-elect Donald Trump does not have a solution (http://www.salon.com/2017/01/04/no-one-likes-repeal-and-delay-the-gop-plan-for-obamacare-meets-cross-ideological-resistance/) to the pending repeal of Obamacare, so he’s leaving it up to a “clown” and the Republican Party to come up with a replacement plan.

After Democrats made hay (http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/schumer-takes-hard-line-against-republicans-on-obamacare-233166) of the GOP’s plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, adopting the slogan “make America sick again” in the process,

Trump appears to be rattled over the negative media attention, tweeting Thursday morning that Democrats, “lead by head clown Chuck Schumer,” were responsible for the law’s shortcomings.



(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1980294624/DJT_Headshot_V2_bigger.jpgDonald J. Trump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)✔@realDonaldTrump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)

The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in. Instead of working to fix it, they..


http://www.salon.com/2017/01/05/apparently-democrats-saying-donald-trump-wants-to-make-america-sick-again-really-got-under-trumps-skin/


:lol Looks like the Dems are finding some testicles and backbone, FINALLY.

Fuck Trash and fuck the Repugs to hell.

GAME ON, you rightwingnutjob motherfuckers. :lol

[Thread]

Apparently, Democrats saying “Donald Trump wants to make America sick again” really got under Trump’s skin

President-elect Donald Trump does not have a solution (http://www.salon.com/2017/01/04/no-one-likes-repeal-and-delay-the-gop-plan-for-obamacare-meets-cross-ideological-resistance/) to the pending repeal of Obamacare, so he’s leaving it up to a “clown” and the Republican Party to come up with a replacement plan.

After Democrats made hay (http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/schumer-takes-hard-line-against-republicans-on-obamacare-233166) of the GOP’s plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, adopting the slogan “make America sick again” in the process,

Trump appears to be rattled over the negative media attention, tweeting Thursday morning that Democrats, “lead by head clown Chuck Schumer,” were responsible for the law’s shortcomings.



(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1980294624/DJT_Headshot_V2_bigger.jpgDonald J. Trump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)✔@realDonaldTrump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)

The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in. Instead of working to fix it, they..


http://www.salon.com/2017/01/05/apparently-democrats-saying-donald-trump-wants-to-make-america-sick-again-really-got-under-trumps-skin/


:lol Looks like the Dems are finding some testicles and backbone, FINALLY.

Fuck Trash and fuck the Repugs to hell.

GAME ON, you rightwingnutjob motherfuckers. :lol








Shoulda had 'em twixt 11/8/16 and just before dawn on the 9th.

Instead Barry bullied Hillary into calling, how you say "Trash" & quitting.

Just shows ta go ya.

[boutons_deux]

Repug propaganda and lies is all they have to offer

Republicans call Obamacare a 'failure.' These 7 charts show they couldn't be more wrong

http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d72b2/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483567845-snap-photo/700/700x394

http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d7377/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568041-snap-photo/700/700x394http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d738a/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568060-snap-photo/700/700x394



http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d739d/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568079-snap-photo/700/700x394

http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d73b2/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568099-snap-photo/700/700x394



http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d73cc/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568126-snap-photo/700/700x394

http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d73df/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568145-snap-photo/700/700x394


http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-obamacare-charts-20170104-story.html?
utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=6c5245e42f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-6c5245e42f-80027601

Ryan even LIES that ACA is screwing up Medicare, when EXACTLY the opposite is true, ACA extending the "solvency" of Medicare by a decade or more.

That's why Ryan wants to combine ACA repeal and Medicare privatization (and why not VA privatization?).

Any of you rightwing assholes want to say why Repugs want so desperately to kill ACA, and privatize Medicare?

Trash's voters voted to kill ACA and Medicare? mandate? :lol

[Thread]

Repug propaganda and lies is all they have to offer

Republicans call Obamacare a 'failure.' These 7 charts show they couldn't be more wrong

http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d72b2/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483567845-snap-photo/700/700x394

http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d7377/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568041-snap-photo/700/700x394http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d738a/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568060-snap-photo/700/700x394



http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d739d/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568079-snap-photo/700/700x394

http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d73b2/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568099-snap-photo/700/700x394



http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d73cc/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568126-snap-photo/700/700x394

http://www.trbimg.com/img-586d73df/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1483568145-snap-photo/700/700x394


http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-obamacare-charts-20170104-story.html?
utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=6c5245e42f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-6c5245e42f-80027601

Ryan even says ACA is screwing up Medicare, when EXACTLY the opposite it true.

That's why Ryan wants to combine ACA repeal and Medicare privatization (and why not VA privatization?).

Any of you rightwing assholes want to say why Repugs want so desperately to kill ACA, and privatize Medicare?





Bouts, running just as fast as he can.

GO---BOUTS---GO!!!!!!

[boutons_deux]

Republicans are about to feel Obama’s pain on Obamacare — and he knows it

That's because repealing Obamacare is a difficult and fraught exercise, for a whole host of policy and political reasons. Such is the case when you're trying to get rid of a massive piece of bureaucracy — and especially one with benefits people have already become accustomed to.

Which is why Obama is telling Democrats to force Republicans to replace the law themselves. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said it more bluntly: “If they want to break this, they own it." They know repealing and replacing the law is a very difficult proposition for Republicans — hence the GOP's decision to delay full repeal for as many as three or even four years — and that the promise of Democratic cooperation would only embolden the GOP's repeal efforts. (Right now, the GOP is taking a piecemeal approach.)
They also know, as Paul Kane notes (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/with-obamacare-gop-faces-the-pottery-barn-rule-you-break-it-you-own-it/2017/01/04/61717d00-d2b8-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html?utm_term=.da4db288cb70), that Republicans will own the result if things go sideways — just as they did for the past seven years. Better to let the GOP take their own crack and pay the price, the logic goes.

But why is this all so difficult for the GOP?

First, there are the mechanics of actually passing a repeal and a replacement. Our own Mike DeBonis and Kelsey Snell tackled this a couple days ago.

Here's the crux (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gops-obamacare-repeal-will-require-more-chisel-than-hammer/2017/01/02/3fbec222-d127-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html?utm_term=.6a6e37dc2a74):


Democratic opposition and complex Senate rules mean that core pieces of the 2010 health-care overhaul are likely to remain, including the legal framework for the individual mandate and pieces of the state exchanges the law created. ...

The rush to immediately chip away at Obama’s regulatory and domestic policies through the complex process known as budget reconciliation could create months of messy GOP infighting.

The plan to vote now on repeal and work out the details later means Republican leaders will be slogging through the difficult process of writing a health-care replacement

while simultaneously trying to scale back regulations in areas such as clean air and immigration, and possibly tackling a tax-code overhaul.

It will be the first real test of how effective the GOP-controlled Congress will be.


Second is the challenge of getting the policy right and avoiding the pitfalls that come with deconstructing and then reconstructing such a big law over time.

Gary Claxton, an analyst at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, compares Obamacare to a stool, in which the unpopular parts of the law are helping prop up the more popular parts.

For example, if Republicans want to get rid of the individual mandate (and they do) while keeping the popular requirement that insurers cover pre-existing conditions, Claxton said, "it would blow up the insurance market" because insurers would be required to accept unhealthy people without also mandating healthy people sign up, as Obamacare does.

"The longer the period between repeal and replace is, the more the market unravels," Claxton said. "And you've blown up the bridge behind you, and you're heading into battle, you can't go backwards. You've gotta figure it out, or else things get really bad."

The third obstacle is the politics: specifically, the idea of taking benefits away from millions of Americans,

whether deliberately or because the GOP fails to install an adequate replacement. Obamacare would have been much easier to repeal had it never been implemented in the first place. But today, 20 million Americans have signed up and many other Americans have come to enjoy parts of Obamacare such as the requirement for insurers to cover pre-existing conditions and the option of keeping children on their parents' health-care plan until they turn 26.

Republicans and Trump have said they'd like to keep these latter two legs of the stool, but it's not clear how they'll implement such requirements in ways that are solvent. And even if they can keep those things, you still have the prospect of millions of Americans losing a health-care option they've had for years. There may be plenty of Obamacare recipients who aren't enamored of their fast-rising premiums (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/average-premiums-for-popular-aca-plans-rising-25-percent/2016/10/24/3adbb734-9a12-11e6-b3c9-f662adaa0048_story.html), sure, but for many it's a health-care option that didn't exist before and could be taken away with an indeterminate replacement.

And indeed, polling suggests even repeal advocates are worried about losing these things.

In its November poll (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/01/do-republicans-have-buyers-remorse-on-repealing-obamacare/?utm_term=.9d7fa2fb120a), the

Kaiser Family Foundation found support for full repeal had declined to 26 percent overall — the lowest in two years.

What's more, once you noted to repeal supporters that this could end coverage for pre-existing conditions, 38 percent of them changed their minds.

And when it was explained that 20 million people could lose their coverage, 19 percent changed their minds.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/05/republicans-are-about-to-feel-obamas-pain-on-obamacare-and-he-knows-it/?utm_term=.3772adaca5fe&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

:lol

Repugs voted 60+ times to repeal ACA, but like their hard on to impeach Clinton, they're coming up laughably flaccid now.

"governance" by Repugs who hate governing, proving both that they won't and can't govern! :lol

[boutons_deux]

what?

MD Anderson cutting staff by 1,000 workers via layoff, retirement; no doctors affected

The layoffs will save the cancer hospital about $120 million.

The reduction, nearly 5 percent of MD Anderson's 20,000-employee work force, had been feared at the acclaimed cancer center since late last month when officials confirmed

operating losses of more than $50 million in both September and October.

Senior executives have been criticized because some of DePinho's top lieutenants make in excess of $1 million a year. DePinho makes more than $2 million. This week he also received a $208,000 annual performance bonus, which he said he's donated back to the Houston cancer hospital.

A cost-containment plan had been implemented then that stopped short of layoffs, but officials warned that staff cuts were under consideration.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/MD-Anderson-set-to-announce-layoffs-today-10837056.php

==========

Officials say factors include higher insurance deductibles for patients and a shrinking number of insurance companies willing to pay for expensive treatments.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/5/houston-md-anderson-cancer-center-cutting-1000-job/

[boutons_deux]

Medicare failed to recover up to $125 million in overpayments, records show

Audits reveal that Medicare overpaid five insurance plans by $128 million, but recovered only $3 million

Under intense pressure from the health insurance industry,

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quietly backed off their repayment demands and settled the audits in 2012 for just under $3.4 million — shortchanging taxpayers by up to $125 million in possible overcharges just for 2007.

https://www.publicintegrity.org/2017/01/06/20579/medicare-failed-recover-125-million-overpayments-records-show?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+publici_rss+%28The+Center+for +Public+Integrity+Latest+Stories%29 (https://www.publicintegrity.org/2017/01/06/20579/medicare-failed-recover-125-million-overpayments-records-show?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+publici_rss+%28The+Center+for +Public+Integrity+Latest+Stories%29)
Trash's people running Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services won't bother about taxpayers getting robbed by BigInsurance

[boutons_deux]

GOP Doesn't Want Public To Know How Much Obamacare Repeal Will Cost. Study Shows It Could Be Trillions.

also contains a provision that exempts repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, from the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) 10-year cost analysis.

"the new Republican rules package specifically instructs the CBO not to say how much it would cost to repeal Obamacare"—a provision that "distorts" federal budget analysis "for political gain." :lol

a section of the bill (on page 25) that instructs the director of the CBO to conduct a 10-year cost analysis of each bill reported by the House, a subsection lists the areas to which the directive will not apply:

(4) LIMITATION.—This subsection shall not apply to any bill or joint resolution, or amendment thereto or conference report thereon—

(A) repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and title I and subtitle B of title II of the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010;

(B) reforming the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010; or

(C) for which the chair of the Committee on the Budget has made an adjustment to the allocations, levels, or limits contained in the most recently adopted concurrent resolution on the budget.


Try as they may to conceal the cost of the repeal, an independent study published (http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Issue-Briefs/2017/Jan/Repealing-Federal-Health-Reform)Thursday estimated that it could cost the states trillions in lost revenue and output.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/06/gop-doesnt-want-public-know-how-much-obamacare-repeal-will-cost-study-shows-it-could

[ElNono]

lol walls of copy-paste nobody reads

[CosmicCowboy]

lol walls of copy-paste nobody reads

Boo losing his mind.

#circlingthedrain

[boutons_deux]

Walls enclose y'alls benighted minds

[boutons_deux]

countering LIES from Repugs and duped Spurstalkers

Here's the Truth Behind Obamacare's Horror Story Deductibles


http://www.motherjones.com/files/blog_obamacare_deductible_1.jpg

The average deductible decreased from $900 to $850 in 2016.

And as you can see if we extrapolate from the figures in the table, it looks like nearly two-thirds of all enrollees had deductibles under $1,000.

Only about a fifth had the horror-story $6,000+ deductibles that we hear so much about.

But that's not all. We don't have figures for how this breaks down, but

my guess is that the majority of the people with high deductibles are the famous "young invincibles" who are single, don't qualify for subsidies because they're fairly well off, and don't think they're going to get sick.

So they buy the cheapest plan they can, take advantage of the preventive care stuff they're allowed before the deductible kicks in, and go about their lives.

No one in their right mind who had any kind of real health issues would ever buy a plan like this.
There are undoubtedly exceptions to this. There always are in a country the size of ours. I'm all for helping these folks out, but one way or another, that calls for more money, not less. Anybody who says otherwise is just playing with you.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/01/heres-truth-behind-obamacares-horror-story-deductibles

[boutons_deux]

Senate Dems Try To Force GOP's Hand On Medicare Privatization

Senate Democrats introduced a measure Monday that would block Republicans from using the budget reconciliation process to privatize Medicare and make changes to Medicaid.

The amendment is meant to signal Democratic support for the bulwarks of the social safety net and to put Republicans in an awkward position if they oppose it.

The amendment, if passed, would give rise to a point of order if Senate Republicans tried to use reconciliation – a process that just requires a simple majority vote in the Senate– to privatize Medicare.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/democrats-introduce-amndment-blocking-medicare-privatization?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

A Half-Dozen GOP Senators Just Fired A Big Warning Shot On Obamacare Repeal

Cries to slow down and wait for a replacement are getting louder.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-senators-obamacare-repeal_us_587445d4e4b02b5f858acad3?tlxcq6djbmc0afw 29&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Morning%20Email%20011016&utm_content=The%20Morning%20Email%20011016+CID_3a4 3b7292c51acdb6cd780a458938358&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Jonathan%20Cohn%20Laura%20Barron-Lopez%20and%20Ryan%20Grim%20HuffPost&

[boutons_deux]

Elizabeth Warren on Republicans and Obamacare: 'Repeal and run is for cowards' (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/9/1618755/-Elizabeth-Warren-on-Republicans-and-Obamacare-Repeal-and-run-is-for-cowards)

"Democrats and nonpartisan government officials have worked for years here in Washington to make the health system work.

We have made progress.

And now, Republicans in Congress are ready to throw away these years and years of progress.

They are ready to threaten the collapse of our insurance markets.

They are ready to threaten the health and safety of millions of Americans, simply to make a political point.

They are ready to repeal and run," Senator Warren said. She continued,

"if Republicans want to destroy health care in America, I will fight them every step of the way.

The stakes are too high for the millions of Americans whose futures are about to be sacrificed so that one party can make a political point.

Let's stay here and do the work that needs to be done to make sure every American gets access to high quality, affordable health care.

Repeal and run is for cowards."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/10/1618755/-Elizabeth-Warren-on-Republicans-and-Obamacare-Repeal-and-run-is-for-cowards?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Repugs are SO FUCKED on ACA/Medicaid/Medicare, but not as fucked as country will be by 2020.

[pgardn]

How are the Republicans Fd if all they really want is for poor Democrats to get sick and die. This is a long term Republican project right Boots? This IS what they really want, correct?

[boutons_deux]

:lol

Paul Ryan surrenders on healthcare repeal: goal now is to repeal/replace 'concurrently' (http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/M6BRECuzFyE/-Paul-Ryan-surrenders-on-health-care-repeal-goal-now-is-to-repeal-replace-concurrently)

That whole repeal immediately, replace later thing—not going so well for Republicans. Paul Ryan admitted as much Tuesday morning, writes (http://thehill.com/homenews/house/313517-ryan-gops-goal-is-to-replace-repeal-obamacare-concurrently) The Hill:

“It is our goal to bring it all together concurrently,” :lol

Ryan told reporters after meeting with House Republicans behind closed doors.

“We’re going to use every tool at our disposal through legislation, through regulation, to bring replace concurrent along with repeal, so that we can save people from this mess.” :lol

In the GOP conference meeting, Ryan told his colleagues he expects the House will press forward and vote Friday on a Senate-passed budget that will start the process :lol to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

That’s despite calls from Freedom Caucus members for more details about how the repeal and replacement process would unfold. :lol details? All Ryan's got is Magic Asterisks :lol


Right, so Obamacare is such a “mess” that Republicans now can’t repeal it without a replacement?

Naturally, he offered no details about replacement and called it a “Senate question.” :lol aka Magic Asterisk

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/10/1618919/-Paul-Ryan-surrenders-on-health-care-repeal-goal-now-is-to-repeal-replace-concurrently?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Mr Budgetary Magic Asterisk :lol

Reminds of the Repug hard-on to impeach Clinton, then they couldn't keep it hard in the Senate. :lol

Clinton leaves office on huge wave of popularity! :lol

[CosmicCowboy]

:lol

Paul Ryan surrenders on healthcare repeal: goal now is to repeal/replace 'concurrently' (http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/M6BRECuzFyE/-Paul-Ryan-surrenders-on-health-care-repeal-goal-now-is-to-repeal-replace-concurrently)

That whole repeal immediately, replace later thing—not going so well for Republicans. Paul Ryan admitted as much Tuesday morning, writes (http://thehill.com/homenews/house/313517-ryan-gops-goal-is-to-replace-repeal-obamacare-concurrently) The Hill:

“It is our goal to bring it all together concurrently,” :lol

Ryan told reporters after meeting with House Republicans behind closed doors.

“We’re going to use every tool at our disposal through legislation, through regulation, to bring replace concurrent along with repeal, so that we can save people from this mess.” :lol

In the GOP conference meeting, Ryan told his colleagues he expects the House will press forward and vote Friday on a Senate-passed budget that will start the process :lol to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

That’s despite calls from Freedom Caucus members for more details about how the repeal and replacement process would unfold. :lol details? All Ryan's got is Magic Asterisks :lol


Right, so Obamacare is such a “mess” that Republicans now can’t repeal it without a replacement?

Naturally, he offered no details about replacement and called it a “Senate question.” :lol aka Magic Asterisk

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/10/1618919/-Paul-Ryan-surrenders-on-health-care-repeal-goal-now-is-to-repeal-replace-concurrently?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Mr Budgetary Magic Asterisk :lol

Reminds of the Repug hard-on to impeach Clinton, then they couldn't keep it hard in the Senate. :lol

Clinton leaves office on huge wave of popularity! :lol



:lmao

Boo, your partisan cheerleader hypocrisy knows no bounds...:lol

Have you forgotten "You have to pass it to read it?" :lol

[boutons_deux]

:lmao

Boo, your partisan cheerleader hypocrisy knows no bounds...:lol

Have you forgotten "You have to pass it to read it?" :lol

you've become as incoherent as your wetback buddy Chucho. You guys rilly rilly can't take my bitch slapping with nothing other than throwing Repugs' own bullshit in your faces.

[CosmicCowboy]

you've become as incoherent as your wetback buddy Chucho. You guys rilly rilly can't take my bitch slapping with nothing other than throwing Repugs' own bullshit in your faces.

:lmao

you are fucking delusional.

KoE1R-xH5To

[spurraider21]

:lmao

you are fucking delusional.

KoE1R-xH5To
Have you ever looked for just a little more context than a 4 second sound bit? Pelosi is a shithead but this meme is played out

[CosmicCowboy]

Have you ever looked for just a little more context than a 4 second sound bit? Pelosi is a shithead but this meme is played out

Just because it is embarrassing and a perfect description of how the ACA was forced through doesn't mean you can just call it "played out" and pretend it doesn't exist.

[boutons_deux]

ACA was forced

how forced? because Dems won? because Repugs refused to vote for ANYTHING Dem for 8 years? :lol

If Repugs lose, Dems forced? :lol

Dems passed a law saves lies. Repugs pass laws, start wars that kill Ms.

[rmt]

how forced? because Dems won? because Repugs refused to vote for ANYTHING Dem for 8 years? :lol

If Repugs lose, Dems forced? :lol

Dems passed a law saves lies. Repugs pass laws, start wars that kill Ms.

Because the Dems passed it without really understanding the law - it's 1000s of pages long - who really read it? It was cooked up by Gruber, your usual rant suspects (ins. co, bigpharma, etc) and the Dems just went along - basically it expands coverage mostly through Medicaid expansion but does little to control costs - instead forcing the premiums, deductibles and co-pays UP with its 10 essential benefits and covering pre-existing conditions without a high enough penalty for dropping.

[boutons_deux]

Because the Dems passed it without really understanding the law - it's 1000s of pages long - who really read it? It was cooked up by Gruber, your usual rant suspects (ins. co, bigpharma, etc) and the Dems just went along - basically it expands coverage mostly through Medicaid expansion but does little to control costs - instead forcing the premiums, deductibles and co-pays UP with its 10 essential benefits and covering pre-existing conditions without a high enough penalty for dropping.

goddam, you're stupid

If ACA would have directly controlled BigHealthcare's costs, the it would have Harry-and-Louise'd.

BigHealthCare makes govt policy, not the govt. And BigCorp writes the fucking laws and regs for Repugs at Federal, state levels, which are passed blindly by your Repugs.

"basically it expands coverage mostly through Medicaid expansion"

it does a hell of a lot more, but your hate for ACA is well understood.

[rmt]

goddam, you're stupid

If ACA would have directly controlled BigHealthcare's costs, the it would have Harry-and-Louise'd.

BigHealthCare makes govt policy, not the govt. And BigCorp writes the fucking laws and regs for Repugs at Federal, state levels, which are passed blindly by your Repugs.

"basically it expands coverage mostly through Medicaid expansion"

it does a hell of a lot more, but your hate for ACA is well understood.

I prefer to make my own decisions regarding how my health dollars are spent. Others don't trust Americans to make their own decisions and so government does a one-size fits all program. Well, one size doesn't fit all - especially where our health is concerned. We are all so different - I happen to think that each individual knows themselves best and it's a more efficient use of money to cater to an individual person than well, everyone should have an EKG at age 50 or a mammogram at age 40 or a colonoscopy at age 50 or .... I think that money is better spent allowing HSA $ to be spent on diet and exercise programs to say bring down the obesity rate or focus on what an individual's family history indicates. But nah, that's just too much for my stupid brain to handle - here, let some government program take over 1/6 of the economy and do it for us all.

[boutons_deux]

GOP Begins Obamacare Repeal With Post-Midnight Vote (http://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-75066/simple-majority-75081)

Though Republicans haven’t coalesced around a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, a 51-48 vote in the dead of night passed a budget setting the repeal process in motion.

Democrats put forward amendments to protect women’s health (http://www.ozy.com/2016/as-health-care-implodes-health-care-companies-boom/74519) services and coverage for pre-existing conditions, but both were defeated by Republicans,

http://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-75066?utm_source=pdb&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01122017&variable=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031#article7 5081

the Repug motherfuckers don't any clue of where they're going, or what they're doing, just blindly, ideologically fuck up as much and as quick as they can, no matter how many people are denied health care, are pushed into poverty, suffer untreated diseases, and die.

[boutons_deux]

I prefer to make my own decisions regarding how my health dollars are spent.

govt doesn't write your health insurance policy, health insurance companies do. They decide how your dollars are spent and which coverage you'll receive.

[rmt]

govt doesn't write your health insurance policy, health insurance companies do. They decide how your dollars are spent and which coverage you'll receive.

Sorry, boutons, but ACA states every policy shall have 10 essential benefits - remember those - all that maternity coverage, pediatric vision and dental coverage, blood tests, mammograms, etc. (that half the population can't use) that drive up the costs.

[Th'Pusher]

Sorry, boutons, but ACA states every policy shall have 10 essential benefits - remember those - all that maternity coverage, pediatric vision and dental coverage, blood tests, mammograms, etc. (that half the population can't use) that drive up the costs.

It actually reduces the cost for people who need the coverage as the cost is spread across a larger user base, most of which won't use the coverage. Which is the point. Otherwise people who may need the coverage pay an exorbitant amount.

[boutons_deux]

It actually reduces the cost for people who need the coverage as the cost is spread across a larger user base, most of which won't use the coverage. Which is the point. Otherwise people who may need the coverage pay an exorbitant amount.

give up. RMT's ideology trumps all rational understanding, eg, how insurance works.

[tlongII]

It actually reduces the cost for people who need the coverage as the cost is spread across a larger user base, most of which won't use the coverage. Which is the point. Otherwise people who may need the coverage pay an exorbitant amount.

You're right. That's exactly the point. Why should I as someone who doesn't need the coverage pay for someone that does?

[boutons_deux]

You're right. That's exactly the point. Why should I as someone who doesn't need the coverage pay for someone that does?

Ever hear of Bad Breaks, Superman?

[CosmicCowboy]

Ever hear of Bad Breaks, Superman?

Is that your rationalization?

[boutons_deux]

Is that your rationalization?

why should I buy auto insurance? no one's ever t-boned me at 80 mph

[monosylab1k]

You're right. That's exactly the point. Why should I as someone who doesn't need the coverage pay for someone that does?

Well I'm sure your old ass won't mind if all Millenials stop paying social security right? Why should they contribute to something your old mooching ass is going to milk dry?

[CosmicCowboy]

Well I'm sure your old ass won't mind if all Millenials stop paying social security right? Why should they contribute to something your old mooching ass is going to milk dry?

That just shows how confused you are. Your "social security tax" is an accounting fraud. There is no dedicated fund that you pay into that pays current benefits.

[boutons_deux]

That just shows how confused you are. Your "social security tax" is an accounting fraud. There is no dedicated fund that you pay into that pays current benefits.

get back to us when the US stops sending SS checks.

[monosylab1k]

That just shows how confused you are. Your "social security tax" is an accounting fraud. There is no dedicated fund that you pay into that pays current benefits.

Not even remotely the point, but thank you sooooooooo much for the tip, grandpa.

Funny how everyone in this country is mooching and it's totally unfair socialist bullshit....unless you're old and white, then magically it's not mooching any more.

[tlongII]

OLD WHITE POWER! :tu

[TeyshaBlue]

why should I buy auto insurance? no one's ever t-boned me at 80 mph

Try harder.

[SnakeBoy]

Try harder.

:lol

[rmt]

They all complain about the high cost but see nothing wrong with every policy having these 10 essential benefits - which cannot be used by half the population. IMO, use the $ wisely and effectively. Go for cheap, catastrophic insurance for everyone. Let each individual decide how to spend the other insurance $s. Are you obese - allow diet/exercise programs with HSA $. Do I have breast cancer in the family - do mammogram/ultrasound every year - don't do an EKG on me just because Obamacare will pay for it when I have no heart disease family history and my blood pressure/cholesterol numbers are perfect. Why should I or all males pay for maternity or pediatric vision and dental coverage?

Funny you should compare to auto insurance - the equivalent to ACA would be old, safe drivers paying the same premiums as young, reckless ones and letting those reckless, dangerous drivers the same access to auto insurance no matter how many accidents they have been in/continue to be in. What do you think is going to happen to auto ins premiums? And those premiums also now cover routine maintenance like oil changes, tire replacement, etc? Same thing as ACA - soon, we ALL can't afford auto insurance.

I think this is all about control - the Dems want government control and I want personal responsibility/control. There are limited $ - you have all seen both Vermont and Colorada vote down single payer because it is TOO expensive. C'mon - where are all your solutions to this fiasco? I say insurance for catastrophes, DIRECT payment (no insurance) of all non-emergency stuff, use of medical tourism and sharing of HSA $s between family, relatives, acquaintances, charity (if you feel so inclined - allow tax-free contributions to other's health expenses).

[baseline bum]

Funny you should compare to auto insurance - the equivalent to ACA would be old, safe drivers paying the same premiums as young, reckless ones and letting those reckless, dangerous drivers the same access to auto insurance no matter how many accidents they have been in/continue to be in.


People are reckless drivers by choice. No one chooses to have a family history of cancer or heart problems.

[boutons_deux]

Republican governors plead to keep Medicaid (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/13/1620133/-Republican-governors-plead-to-keep-Medicaid)

A number of Republican governors who have seen the benefits of Medicaid expansion—to their state budgets, to their hospitals, and particularly to their citizens—are fighting congressional Republicans (http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/gop-governors-republicans-obamacare-233576) over Obamacare repeal.

Trump's push comes as at least five of the 16 Republican governors of states that took federal money to expand Medicaid are advocating to keep it or warning GOP leaders of disastrous consequences if the law is repealed without a replacement that keeps millions of people covered.

They include Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval.

And more Republican governors may join with a Friday deadline to submit written proposals to Republican leadership on the Hill.[…]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/13/1620133/-Republican-governors-plead-to-keep-Medicaid?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Repug/VWRC/capitialists IDEOLOGY (govt cannot, must not, will not be For The People) trumps 10Ks of human lives.

[boutons_deux]

Paul Ryan lies to a cancer survivor, says he's not ripping his life-saving health insurance away (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/13/1620092/-Paul-Ryan-lies-to-a-cancer-survivor-says-he-s-not-ripping-his-life-saving-health-insurance-away)

http://images.dailykos.com/images/337101/story_image/GettyImages-503902824.jpg?1481303476

House Speaker Paul Ryan held a CNN town hall Thursday evening and was met with a cold dose of reality (http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/314125-ryan-confronted-by-cancer-patient-who-says-obamacare-saved-his-life).


"Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I’m standing here today alive," he said. "I rely on the Affordable Care Act to be able to purchase my own insurance. Why would you repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement?"

Ryan responded: "Oh, we wouldn’t do that, we want to replace it with something better. First of all, I'm glad you're standing here."

Jeans then took to the mic again to thank President Obama.

"I want to thank President Obama from the bottom of my heart, because I would be dead if it weren’t for him," he said.

Ryan remained unfazed, first lying to Mr. Jeans by saying they'll replace it with "something better." That. Will. Not. Happen. Then Ryan went on (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1701/12/se.01.html) to "explain" that Obamacare is in a death spiral.

Enrollment numbers are going up (https://twitter.com/larry_levitt/status/818854719829356544) and the system is not collapsing. That's just the reality.

But it’s a reality Ryan is callously denying.

Here's the truth: he and his fellow Republicans are trying to take Mr. Jean's health insurance away.

They're doing that without a plan in place to save his insurance, and potentially save his life. They've had six years to create a plan.

If they don't have one by now, they're not going to have one. And Paul Ryan is going to own the consequences.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/13/1620092/-Paul-Ryan-lies-to-a-cancer-survivor-says-he-s-not-ripping-his-life-saving-health-insurance-away

[boutons_deux]

Obamacare Fact-Check Shows GOP Obamacare Claims Are Often False

President-elect Donald Trump says that President Barack Obama's health care law "will fall of its own weight."

House Speaker Paul Ryan says the law is "in what the actuaries call a death spiral."

And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that "by nearly any measure, Obamacare has failed."

The problem with all these claims: They are exaggerated, if not downright false.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/obamacare-fact-check-shows-gop-obamacare-claims-are-often-false-n705151

[boutons_deux]

Congressman Steve King: Let’s Not Get ‘Bogged Down’ With Americans Dying from Obamacare Repeal

At least one Republican member of Congress admits that Americans dying from lack of healthcare access isn’t a huge concern to him.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) isn’t waiting for a Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to repeal President Obama’s signature healthcare reform law. King introduced an Obamacare repeal bill (https://steveking.house.gov/sites/steveking.house.gov/files/KINGIA_365_xml.pdf) on the first day of the 115th Congress, and told NPR’s Robert Siegel (http://www.npr.org/2017/01/12/509542812/rep-steve-king-pushes-ahead-on-obamacare-repeal-before-replacement) that even if the healthcare law were repealed with no replacement, he would still view that as a better option than Obamacare.

While acknowledging that immediate repeal of the Affordable Care Act would mean that roughly 20 million people would lose their health insurance, King wrote it off as collateral damage, stating that approximately 10.8 million of those people would still qualify for Medicaid. Although when it came to the remaining 9.2 million, Rep. King just shrugged.

“Under Obamacare, they always envisioned that 4 percent of the population would be uninsured even if it were fully implemented. So I wouldn’t want to be bogged down on that, but I would want to do the best thing we can for the maximum number of American people,” King said.

The Iowa Republican also made a particularly bizarre argument (http://www.npr.org/2017/01/12/509542812/rep-steve-king-pushes-ahead-on-obamacare-repeal-before-replacement) against the concept of healthcare as a right, seemingly

saying that allowing Americans to die from lack of healthcare access should be the natural order of things if people don’t buy health insurance prior to getting sick or injured.

“If we guarantee people that we will – that there will be a policy issued to them regardless of them not taking the responsibility to buy insurance before they were sick, that’s the equivalent of waiting for your house is on fire and then buying property and casualty insurance,” King said.

http://usuncut.com/politics/steve-king-obamacare-dying/

Repugs are the party of psychopathy, sociopathy.

btw, King is one the most extreme, fuckedup Repugs who is also Catholic.

[spurraider21]

no one's ever t-boned me at 80 mphdamn shame

[CosmicCowboy]

People are reckless drivers by choice. No one chooses to have a family history of cancer or heart problems.

True, but in the ACA / auto insurance analogy you wouldn't even need to buy car insurance until after you had a wreck and then the insurance company would have to fix your car.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Voters and I Have One Thing in Common: We’re Scared of Losing Medicaid

The median household income in Owsley is just $19,146 per year.

The unemployment rate is double the national average, the majority of children live below the poverty line, and in 2011 more than half the county’s residents received food stamps.

When Medicaid was expanded under the Affordable Care Act, a whopping 66 percent (http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article45093165.html) of residents became eligible. And if you ask them about it, they express deep appreciation. Again and again.

“It’s been a godsend to me,” said (http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/19/502580120/in-depressed-rural-kentucky-worries-mount-over-medicaid-cutbacks) a school custodian who suffered from a thyroid condition that practically immobilized her. Medicaid let her get treatment—and it paid for her cataract and carpal tunnel surgery.

Another resident lamented (http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article45093165.html) that without Medicaid, she couldn’t pay for the doctor’s visits to keep her hyperthyroidism in check. “If anything changed to make our insurance more expensive for us that would be a big problem,” she said.

Resident after resident in news article after news article acknowledged the price they would pay if these services disappeared.

But in the past two years, the residents of Owsley overwhelmingly voted for a governor, and then for a president, who want to eliminate the Affordable Care Act.

Now that the heat of the election has passed, they are anxious (http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/13/13848794/kentucky-obamacare-trump). And I understand why.

Medicaid expansion and replacing it with a fee paying system will return millions to the days of saving their change (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/13/obamacare-repeal-would-lead-to-24-million-more-people-without-health-insurance.html) before seeking help.

Preventative care (the kind that could have caught my cancer earlier) or regular monthly appointments (the kind that could protect me from a cancer recurrence) will be curtailed or gone.

Instead, the poor everywhere will see the familiar front desk sign that reads “Payment is Due at the Time of Service.”

And we’ll go home.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/01/15/trump-voters-and-i-have-one-thing-common-were-scared-losing-medicaid

[boutons_deux]

Republican congressman sneaks away from constituents demanding health care answers

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) escaped out the back door of his own event before it was over to avoid the angry crowd.

https://thinkprogress.org/republican-congressman-sneaks-away-from-constituents-demanding-health-care-answers-e55e0593244e#.af7f7w66q

:lol

[dbestpro]

Obamacare Fact-Check Shows GOP Obamacare Claims Are Often False

President-elect Donald Trump says that President Barack Obama's health care law "will fall of its own weight."

House Speaker Paul Ryan says the law is "in what the actuaries call a death spiral."

And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that "by nearly any measure, Obamacare has failed."

The problem with all these claims: They are exaggerated, if not downright false.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/obamacare-fact-check-shows-gop-obamacare-claims-are-often-false-n705151


More fake news.

[dbestpro]

Trump Voters and I Have One Thing in Common: We’re Scared of Losing Medicaid

The median household income in Owsley is just $19,146 per year.

The unemployment rate is double the national average, the majority of children live below the poverty line, and in 2011 more than half the county’s residents received food stamps.

When Medicaid was expanded under the Affordable Care Act, a whopping 66 percent (http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article45093165.html) of residents became eligible. And if you ask them about it, they express deep appreciation. Again and again.

“It’s been a godsend to me,” said (http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/19/502580120/in-depressed-rural-kentucky-worries-mount-over-medicaid-cutbacks) a school custodian who suffered from a thyroid condition that practically immobilized her. Medicaid let her get treatment—and it paid for her cataract and carpal tunnel surgery.

Another resident lamented (http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article45093165.html) that without Medicaid, she couldn’t pay for the doctor’s visits to keep her hyperthyroidism in check. “If anything changed to make our insurance more expensive for us that would be a big problem,” she said.

Resident after resident in news article after news article acknowledged the price they would pay if these services disappeared.

But in the past two years, the residents of Owsley overwhelmingly voted for a governor, and then for a president, who want to eliminate the Affordable Care Act.

Now that the heat of the election has passed, they are anxious (http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/13/13848794/kentucky-obamacare-trump). And I understand why.

Medicaid expansion and replacing it with a fee paying system will return millions to the days of saving their change (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/13/obamacare-repeal-would-lead-to-24-million-more-people-without-health-insurance.html) before seeking help.

Preventative care (the kind that could have caught my cancer earlier) or regular monthly appointments (the kind that could protect me from a cancer recurrence) will be curtailed or gone.

Instead, the poor everywhere will see the familiar front desk sign that reads “Payment is Due at the Time of Service.”

And we’ll go home.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/01/15/trump-voters-and-i-have-one-thing-common-were-scared-losing-medicaid




Fake news.

[dbestpro]

Republican congressman sneaks away from constituents demanding health care answers

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) escaped out the back door of his own event before it was over to avoid the angry crowd.

https://thinkprogress.org/republican-congressman-sneaks-away-from-constituents-demanding-health-care-answers-e55e0593244e#.af7f7w66q

:lol

.and the fake news continues.

[boutons_deux]

The simple, sinister reason for the GOP’s never-ending war on Obamacare (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/14/1620532/-The-simple-sinister-reason-for-the-GOP-s-never-ending-war-on-Obamacare)

what Utah Senator Orrin Hatch called a "holy war" (http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/19/nation/na-health-senate19) to block healthcare reform didn't start when Barack Obama took the oath of office in January 2009, but instead when Bill Clinton was inaugurated in 1993 (https://web.archive.org/web/19970617214815/http://www1.pbs.org/newshour/forum/may96/background/health_debate_page2.html).

It was then that former Quayle chief of staff and Republican strategist William Kristol (https://web.archive.org/web/20090303020735/http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com//bill-kristols-1993-memo-calling-for-gop-to-block-health-care-reform/) warned his GOP allies that a Clinton victory on health care could guarantee Democratic majorities for the foreseeable future. "The Clinton proposal is also a serious political threat to the Republican Party," Kristol wrote in his infamous December 3, 1993 memo (https://web.archive.org/web/20090309053530/http://delong.typepad.com/egregious_moderation/2009/03/william-kristol-defeating-president-clintons-health-care-proposal.html) titled "Defeating President Clinton's Health Care Proposal,"

Approvingly citing Norman Markowitz' assertion at PoliticalAffairs.net that "national health care [and other measures] will bring reluctant voters into the Obama coalition," Cannon fretted that "making citizens dependent on the government for their medical care can change the fates of political parties." For arch conservatives, that formula spells trouble for the GOP.

James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute also picked up Kristol's baton. Concerned that "creating the Obamacare Class would pull America to the left,"

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/14/1620532/-The-simple-sinister-reason-for-the-GOP-s-never-ending-war-on-Obamacare?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

Even Lots of Republicans Think the Feds Should Guarantee Health Care For All


http://www.motherjones.com/files/blog_pew_healthcare_government_responsibility.jpg

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/01/even-lots-republicans-think-feds-should-guarantee-health-care-all

Doesn't matter Repugs are gone fuck hard Trash's voters.

[rmt]

Even Lots of Republicans Think the Feds Should Guarantee Health Care For All


http://www.motherjones.com/files/blog_pew_healthcare_government_responsibility.jpg

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/01/even-lots-republicans-think-feds-should-guarantee-health-care-all

Doesn't matter Repugs are gone fuck hard Trash's voters.




The key is LOWER INCOME - who wouldn't want free or subsidized health care - regardless of Repub or Dem? What about the rest of us who are paying $1800 per month to cover the family - regardless of Repub or Dem? That's 50% more than I pay for my mortgage. It's a re-distribution of wealth - $2500 less in premium, keep your doctor, keep your plan - what a crock of lies to sell this crap of a law.

[boutons_deux]

The key is a criminally overpriced, predatory, wealth-sucking health care industry where profits override care.

[rmt]

The key is a criminally overpriced, predatory, wealth-sucking health care industry where profits override care.

That's your opinion - nothing to do with the graph/article you posted. Of course, LOWER INCOME people of whatever party want freebies and subsidies. Who/which party passed that criminally overpriced, predatory, wealth-sucking health care law where profits override care? That's right - Obama and the Dems. You can't blame this on the Repubs.

[pgardn]

rmt vehemently disagrees with Trump on this one and sides with Ryan.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-ryan-medicare-233610

Trump says all entitlements can stay in place and everyone can be covered by his new health care.
Just grow the economy.

Republicans have the ball and are close to fumbling it. Hopefully they come to some agreement and donot leave us in limbo like the Brexiters have done to Britian. The hammer will fall. Lets get it together. Lets lead.

[boutons_deux]

Michigan Republican trashes Trump to calm town hall crowd angered by Obamacare repeal

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Justin-Amash-Facebook-800x430.png

The constituents who arrived early enough to take part quickly peppered Amash with questions on climate change, the repeal of President Barack Obama’s health care law and other political issues.

“Do you or do you not support the immediate repeal of the Affordable Care Act with or without a replacement?” one attendee asked.

Amash told the constituent that he expected state governments to come up with a replacement for the health care reform law — and the crowd erupted in anger.

The crowd frequently interrupted Amash during the town hall, and members of the audience repeatedly

insisted the lawmaker refer to the law as the Affordable Care Act instead of Obamacare.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/michigan-republican-trashes-trump-to-calm-town-hall-crowd-angered-by-obamacare-repeal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Kock Bros and Trash are certainly going primary this guy, he won't be coming back to Congress.

[boutons_deux]

ACA Enrollment Highest In States That Voted Trump

“Sometimes you have to vote against your own interests if you want to vote against the interests of everyone else.”

Nina Mendel RETIRED FRANCOPHILE

http://www.theonion.com/americanvoices/aca-enrollment-highest-states-voted-trump-55082

[boutons_deux]

Republicans Are Trapped In An Obamacare Nightmare As Only 22% Of US Wants Law Repealed

Repealing Obamacare has turned into a total political nightmare for Republicans.

According to a new CBS News poll, only 22% of Americans want the law repealed.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/01/18/republicans-trapped-obamacare-nightmare-22-law-repealed.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

Fuck Ryan and the billionaire whoremasters to own him.

[Winehole23]

the ACA is more popular than Trump:


according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal" poll, 45% of Americans now believe the Affordable Care Act was a "good idea" compared to 41% who think it was a bad idea -- the first time, we should note, since the law's passage in 2010 that more people approve than disapprove.

[Winehole23]

if the US Congress doesn't deliver the better, cheaper system Trump promised, both will suffer for it.

[boutons_deux]

if the US Congress doesn't deliver the better, cheaper system Trump promised, both will suffer for it.

Ryan's dogs lunch will be more expensive for citizens with less coverage.

Rural America, already hurting, could be most harmed by Trump’s promise to repeal Obamacare

The health of rural America is failing, and a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without adequate replacement could prove disastrous. A December, 2016 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that for the first time in 20 years, life expectancy in the United States has declined (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db267.htm), particularly in small cities and rural areas, where people are dying at much higher rates (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/04/10/a-new-divide-in-american-death/?hpid=hp_no-name_whitedeath-underdisplay_1%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&tid=a_inl). This shocking trend is driven in part by increasing mortality (http://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15078.full.pdf) rates for white, working-class Americans, many of whom live in rural America.

There is no better indicator of well-being than life expectancy, and reversals like this are unusual (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4802655/) for wealthy nations where successive generations increase in longevity. This has remained true for vulnerable, minority populations in America, as blacks and Hispanics (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/06/03/big-gains-for-black-hispanic-longevity-in-u-s-since-2000-white-gains-much-smaller/?utm_term=.96fcf6285250) continue to make gains in life expectancy even while experiencing significant health disparities.

This drop in life expectancy in rural areas is linked to higher rates of chronic illness, obesity, drug overdose, alcoholism, mental illness and suicide. Death rates are most notable for rural white women, who are now much more likely than their grandmothers to suffer from obesity, smoking and alcoholism (http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2015/11/10/to-understand-climbing-death-rates-among-whites-look-to-women-of-childbearing-age/).

Rising rates of opioid addiction have resulted in an increase in drug dependency in newborns (http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2592302) born to rural mothers. Further, dwindling industry in these communities limits access to both employment and to health care.

Taken as a whole, Medicaid expansion through the ACA has resulted in critical gains (http://hrms.urban.org/quicktakes/Substantial-Gains-in-Health-Insurance-Coverage-Occurring-for-Adults-in-Both-Rural-and-Urban-Areas.html) toward improving rural population health by expanding insurance coverage and stabilizing rural hospitals.

The repeal of Medicaid expansion and collapse of the individual insurance market, which could occur as part of repeal of the ACA, could threaten strides the country has made in advancing the health of rural America.

As emergency medicine physicians, we treat patients across the spectrum of race, class, geography and socioeconomic status – and we know firsthand how devastating the loss of access to health care can be to vulnerable populations. We explain why repeal of the fundamental components of the ACA, commonly called Obamacare, will be uniquely disastrous for the health of rural populations.

Rural health gains

It is no surprise that rural Americans experienced the highest rates of coverage gains (https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/204986/ACARuralbrief.pdf) through the ACA. They have been more likely to have had inadequate access (https://www.hrsa.gov/advisorycommittees/rural/publications/ruralimplications.pdf) to affordable health care for years. This dramatic increase in insurance is translating into improved health for these communities.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/rural-america-already-hurting-could-be-most-harmed-by-trumps-promise-to-repeal-obamacare/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[rmt]

Republicans Are Trapped In An Obamacare Nightmare As Only 22% Of US Wants Law Repealed

Repealing Obamacare has turned into a total political nightmare for Republicans.

According to a new CBS News poll, only 22% of Americans want the law repealed.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/01/18/republicans-trapped-obamacare-nightmare-22-law-repealed.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

Fuck Ryan and the billionaire whoremasters to own him.




The new CNN poll that claims that more people now favor (49%) ACA than oppose (47%) with MOE +/-3 is 32% Democrat and 24% Republican (page 14 of http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2017/images/01/18/congress,.aca.pdf). These articles and what's being put out there on my local radio station also fail to mention that only 22% want to abandon plans to repeal the law & leave it as is, 2% have no opinion, 21% want repeal parts of law as opportunities arise, regardless of whether a replacement is ready and 55% want repeal parts of law only if replacements can be enacted at same time. Misleading articles/claims by media.

bout, would you please post the link to the original CBS poll (not some article that mentions it) so I can check?

WH, where's the link to your NBC/WSJ poll so I can check that one too?