Trumpcare-- 1.0

[boutons_deux]

Obamacare Is Going Back On Trial, With Insurance For 20 Million At Stake

The Republican lawsuit hasn’t gotten a lot of attention lately, but it should.

in November, a federal district judge sided with the plaintiffs, declaring the Affordable Care Act was uncons utional.

It was a big victory for the 20 GOP state officials who brought the case as well as for President Donald Trump, who had the U.S. Justice Department file a brief supporting the case.

Now the case is before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, where a panel of three judges will hear oral arguments on Tuesday.

Two of the judges are Republican appointees and have tiesto the conservative Federalist Society,

just like the federal district judge who ruled in favor of the case in November.


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aca-obamacare-lawsuit-appeal-uncons utional_n_5d2399dbe4b0d11a78458c40?ncid=n ewsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__070919&guccounte r=1

[boutons_deux]

Even Conservatives Want The Courts To Ignore Trump On Obamacare

They hate the Affordable Care Act, but they also want no part of this latest lawsuit.

Conservatives are begging the federal courts to uphold Obamacare.

President Donald Trump is rooting for the case to succeed,

even though an estimated 20 million people would lose insurance and,

as usual, he doesn’t have a replacement plan.

At his behest, the Justice Department last week formally informed the 5th Circuit that it, too, wants the whole law to come off the books.

conservatives think that would be nuts ― either because

they genuinely think the merits of the case are so weak or

because they fear the political effects for Republicans could be devastating, or both.

The case is called Texas vs. Azar,

The underlying premise of Texas vs. Azar is that the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate,”

which imposed a financial penalty on people who didn’t obtain insurance,

has become uncons utional because the 2017 tax cut reduced the penalty to zero.

Because Congress in 2010 thought the mandate was an essential piece of the Affordable Care Act,

the lawsuit says, the courts must throw out the entire law.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/conse...gEmail__070919

[boutons_deux]

U.S. appeals court signals sympathy to bid to strike down Obamacare

expressing skepticism to Democratic calls to overturn the ruling of a Texas judge who found the landmark U.S. healthcare reform law uncons utional.

Two Republican-appointed members

of the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sharply questioned lawyers for a group of Democratic state attorneys general and the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives defending the Affordable Care Act.

Whichever way it rules, the decision could prompt an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, potentially

setting up a major legal battle over healthcare for tens of millions of Americans in the midst of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The judges focused on whether Obamacare lost its legal justification after Trump in 2017 signed a law that eliminated a tax penalty used to enforce the law’s mandate that all Americans buy health insurance.

“If you no longer have the tax, why isn’t it uncons utional?”

Republican opponents call the law an unwarranted intervention by government in health insurance markets,

while supporters say striking it down would threaten the healthcare of 20 million people who have gained insurance since its enactment.

After Trump signed a tax bill passed by a Republican-led Congress that reduced the tax penalty to zero dollars, a coalition of Republican-led states headed by Texas sued, alleging the tax penalty’s elimination rendered Obamacare uncons utional.

if Obamacare is struck down,

“A lot of this stuff would need to get sorted out, and it’s complicated.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-obamacare/u-s-appeals-court-signals-sympathy-to-bid-to-strike-down-obamacare-idUSKCN1U40ZU?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

Obamacare going down, thanks to bag Repugs and their politicized bag so-called judges.

[boutons_deux]

It May Be up to John Roberts to Save the Affordable Care Act Once Again

Republicans’ claims that their 2017 tax reform bill gives the courts no other option but to strike as uncons utional the entirety of the health law due to its individual mandate provision.

According to Republicans, the individual mandate has two distinct parts to it.

The first part “mandates” people carry health insurance by use of the word “shall.”

The second part imposes a tax on those people who fail to purchase insurance.

In 2017, Republicans left the language of the mandate in place, but zeroed out its tax penalty for those who don’t carry insurance.

because the tax from that mandate is now zero, they say, the tax isn’t really a tax anymore.

And if a tax isn’t a tax, then the mandate is no longer cons utional

and must be struck along with the entire rest of the ACA.

individuals ultimately maintained a choice in complying with the ACA:

Purchase insurance or pay a tax.

The fact that Congress decided to make that tax zero doesn’t fundamentally change the nature of that choice.

https://rewire.news/article/2019/07/11/it-may-be-up-to-john-roberts-to-save-the-aca-once-again/

I figure the Repug bag compromised 5th Circuit will agree with the TX bag Repug judge about the hole TX suit,

and kill ACA for the above BULL "logic"

[boutons_deux]

Wingnut federal judge rules against people with pre-existing conditions

Reliably wingnutty Judge Richard Leon, of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, has ruled that the Trump administration can break the law,

in this case the Affordable Care Act, and expand the sale of junk, short-term health insurance policies.

The Trump administration has issued a rule to allow the plans to last as long as 364 days and to be renewable for three years.

Challengers argued that this

would undermine the ACA markets,

driving healthy people out of the larger pool into these cheap, crappy plans and

causing premiums to increase for people in the ACA-compliant plans.

They also argued, correctly, that this

undermines the protections for people with pre-existing conditions under the law.

The short-term plans Trump is allowing would not have to extend those protections.

Leon was not swayed by reality.

"Not only is any potential negative impact" from the rule "minimal, but its benefits are undeniable," he wrote, saying that

there is no evidence that the rule "is having or will have the type of impact—

substantial exodus from the individual market exchanges—

that would threaten the ACA's structural core."

really so stupid that they don't understand the basic premise of how health insurance works,

but the evidence from Republicans and partisans such as Leon argues otherwise.

That, or they're just fundamentally dishonest and don't give a damn, and so cynically make this up.

hyperpartisan judges like Leon and those on the 5th Circuit

who look ready to toss the entire ACA are going to make political life very hard for Republicans in 2020. Which is just deserts.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/19/1873006/-Wing-nut-federal-judge-rules-against-people-with-pre-existing-conditions-so-have-fun-with-that-GOP?detail=emaildkre

Leon is the IDEAL hyperpartisan so-called judge model that Trash and Leonard Leo are polluting the Federal judiciary with.

[boutons_deux]

Republican lawmakers refusing Medicaid expansion responsible for premature deaths of 15,000+ people

A new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research

"Our estimates suggest that approximately 15,600 deaths would have been averted

had the ACA expansions been adopted nationwide as originally intended by the ACA," they write.

"This highlights an ongoing cost to non-adoption that should be relevant to both state policymakers and their cons uents."

many of those 14 states that still have refused expansion

are also suing in federal court right now to have the entire law struck down, including Medicaid expansion.

John Roberts, who became single-handedly responsible for allowing the worst of Republican state lawmakers to deny this care when

he made the political decision to make expansion optional.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1873628

[boutons_deux]

Trump Administration Announces Plan Allowing People to Buy Lower-Cost Prescription Drugs From Canada

“Under this pathway, States, wholesalers, or pharmacists could submit plans for demonstration projects for HHS to review outlining how they would import Health-Canada approved drugs that are in compliance with section 505 of the FD&C Act,”

The second path allows manufacturers to import versions of FDA-approved drugs that the companies sell in other countries and are the same versions used in the United States.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-administration-announces-plan-allowing-people-to-buy-lower-cost-prescription-drugs-from-canada_3024042.html

I don't see any way for Americans to cut out the middleman's extortionate profits by mail-ordering directly from Canada.

[boutons_deux]

How will Trash square this with BigPharma that should lose $Bs in drug profits.

How will BigPharma try to kill or cripple Canada imports?

[boutons_deux]

Trump firms up plan to import medicines;

pharma companies resist no


"The importation idea still needs to be proposed and then finalized by Health and Human Services.

The largest U.S. pharmaceutical and biotech companies said they opposed the idea of importation

through their lobbyists PhRMA and BIO.

“There is no way to guarantee the safety of drugs that come into the country,”

PhRMA Chief Executive Officer Stephen Ubl said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...2F+Top+News%29

BigPharma's "FDA-approved safe drugs" have killed or maimed Ms of Americans.

SAFE? G M A F B

And obviously, Canadians are being wiped out by their unsafe drugs.

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration considers September unveiling of healthcare plan

Trump has not signed off on the tentative plan, the newspaper said, describing ongoing debate about the plan and the timing for the roll-out.

Polling shows that healthcare is a top concern for voters leading up to the election.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-healthcare/trump-administration-considers-september-unveiling-of-healthcare-plan-wsj-idUSKCN1UT0J1?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[boutons_deux]

No doubt that Trumpcare, due soon, will make this Capitalist dystopia much worse

WHY WOULD CANCER PATIENTS STOP TREATMENT? MONEY

if you have a condition that requires intensive, long-term care and instead of spending the average $10,000 a year, you have to spend $30,000 or $60,000 or more? And what if you can’t afford to?

The percentage of Americans who are uninsured reached a four-year high recently, with nearly 14 percent of adults saying they have no coverage.

survey included more than 1,000 patients

Fifty-four percent of patients surveyed had stopped or refused treatment due to the cost — and among the uninsured, 98 percent had.

In 2013, NerdWallet found that medical debt was the largest driver of personal bankruptcy.

In 2015, an analysis of several crowdfunding sites found that 41 percent of campaigns were to pay off medical debt, but only 11 percent of those were fully funded.

Cancer survivors report

borrowing money,

going into debt,

being unable to pay for care,

making other financial sacrifices and

experiencing psychological hardship associated with costs of medical care,

even when they have jobs and insurance.

When the debt collectors come calling, cancer patients are more than two times more likely to file for bankruptcy than other patients facing financial hardships.

filing for bankruptcy after a cancer diagnosis is a risk factor for early mortality.

https://www.ozy.com/a en/why-would-cancer-patients-stop-treatment-money/95885?utm_term=OZY&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium= email&utm_campaign=DD_2019_08_11&utm_content=A

America is ed into barbarity, and un able

If Dems take sweep House, Senate, WH in 2020, they won't try seriously to fix health wealth extraction.

And we know the Repugs never will

iow, there is no solution. The oligarchy is too wealthy, $Bs more than is necessary to buy politicians and the judiciary.

[rmt]

Finland's entire government resigns over failed healthcare reforms

https://www.euronews.com/2019/03/08/...iled-healthcar

[boutons_deux]

Finland's entire government resigns over failed healthcare reforms

https://www.euronews.com/2019/03/08/...iled-healthcar

what's your opinion on this and does it relate to USA's show of Capitalist so-called healthcare?

[boutons_deux]

Fox contributor suggests Medicare for All would increase mass shootings


"The Mexicans Will Not Replace Us!"

Rachel Campos-Duffy suggested that

Medicare for All would increase the likelihood of mass shootings by lowering access to mental health care.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/fox..._campaign=1160

[boutons_deux]

AbbVie prices new rheumatoid arthritis drug at $59,000/yr

A four-week supply of Humira, the world’s best-selling medicine, has a list price of about $5,174, amounting to more than $60,000 for a year.

Humira brought in global revenue of $4.87 billion in the second quarter,

but sales have been hit by compe ion from cheaper rivals in Europe, and

AbbVie in June announced a deal to buy Botox-maker Allergan Plc for $63 billion to reduce dependence on the drug.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-abbvie-fda/abbvie-prices-new-rheumatoid-arthritis-drug-at-59000-yr-idUSKCN1V61MJ?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm _source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Fe ed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reuters+Health+News% 29

[boutons_deux]

No doubt Trumpcare will address the gawdawful problem of rural health care

The ‘follow-up appointment’

For many people in medical debt, a trip to the emergency room leads to the courtroom


Unpaid medical bills are the leading cause of personal debt and bankruptcy in the United States according to credit reports, and

what’s happening in rural areas such as Butler County is a main reason why.

Patients who visit rural emergency rooms in record numbers are defaulting on their bills at higher rates than ever before.

Meanwhile, many of the nation’s 2,000 rural hospitals have begun to buckle under bad debt,

with more than 100 closing in the past decade and hundreds more on the brink of insolvency as

they fight to squeeze whatever money they’re owed from patients who don’t have it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-follow-up-appointment/2019/08/17/1be5ded6-b936-11e9-a091-6a96e67d9cce_story.html?noredirect=on&wpisrc=nl_mo st&wpmm=1

[boutons_deux]

Trump unleashes bizarre stream of gobbledygook when reporter asks him to describe his health care plan

Trump was asked by a reporter in New Hampshire this week to describe his health care plan, and the president responded with a stream of gobbledygook.

“So, we have a great plan coming out,”

the president began when asked about his plan.

“It’s going to be — if we can take back the House because we’re not going to get the Democrats to vote for it,

because they’re doing Medicare for all, which is going

to take away your freedom,
take away your doctors,
take away everything that you should be able to have,

and
most importantly, it’s going to take away —

we have 180 million people right now that have private insurance and they love it, and

all of that’s going to be taken away.

It’s absolute craziness.”

the president then proceeded to make false statements about Medicare for All.

“On top of everything else, they’re looking at 80, 90, 95 percent tax,

because there’s no — there’s no way they can afford it,” he said.

“But people don’t want to go to a hospital,

to go to a doctor.

They don’t want to go.

They want to have their own doctor, number one,

and we went through this with Obamacare,

which we got rid of the individual mandate,

by the way, which is very important.”

“But we have a great health care plan,” he said.

“If we get the House,
we hold the Senate,
we keep the presidency,

we’re going to have great health care,

much better than Obamacare,

at much less cost.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/trump-unleashes-bizarre-stream-of-gobbledygook-when-reporter-asks-him-to-describe-his-health-care-plan/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1190

Obamacare was repealed on "day one" of Trash's disastrous so-call Presidency, right?

[boutons_deux]

Health Care Rationing? It’s Already A Reality Here, And This Report Proves It.

Almost 18% of working-age diabetics are skipping meds because of cost.

there’s been no shortage of studies on people forgoing medical care because it’s too expensive, just as there’s been no shortage of stories about people suffering as a result.

Jesimya David Scherer-Radcliff, a 21-year-old diabetic from rural Minnesota, died. His family said it was because he had skipped insulin doses he couldn’t afford.

Among the mourners at that memorial service was activist Nicole Smith-Holt, from nearby Minneapolis, whose 26-year-old son, Alec Raeshawn Smith, had died under similar cir stances in 2017.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/diabetes-insulin-cost-rationing_n_5d5c9809e4b0f667ed6a1adf?ncid=newsltus hpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__082219


Sociopathic, psychopathic Capitalism: amassing wealth, profits before human lives

the shakedown, extortion: "You wanna live? PAY UP, or die"

[boutons_deux]

No Worries, Trash is limiting the cost of drugs

The $6 Million Drug Claim

New treatments for rare diseases are changing the lives of patients, but

the price can reach millions of dollars for a single person.

her family and her husband’s union, which covers the drug’s cost, have been shocked by the mounting bills for the treatments for her and two of her children, who have the same genetic disease.

In 2018, the union faced a potential $6 million annual bill for the Patterson household,

casting doubt over the future of the labor group’s generous drug coverage and the family’s health.

These drugs face no real compe ion, including from generic companies, leaving the door wide open for manufacturers to set nearly any price they want.

Rare diseases, however, aren’t all that rare. There are an estimated 7,000 of them, and about 30 million Americans have one — roughly the same number of people in the United States with diabetes.

Of 59 new drugs approved in 2018, more than half, or 34, were for rare diseases.

Those treatments are typically the most expensive, helping to drive an increase in overall spending on prescriptions nationwide.

big and small employers are getting hit with higher drug bills.

It may be for a worker’s

child with hemophilia whose treatments can cost over $1 million or for an employee receiving immunotherapy for lung cancer.

But not every union or corporate employer has an adequate cushion to absorb these prescription bills.

a stunning lack of transparency in drug pricing;

many rare-disease drugs are priced based on a patient’s weight,

meaning a prescription for an adult costs many times more than one for a child or infant.

In 2018, Ms. Patterson’s drug bill approached $2 million.

The breathtaking price threw the labor union — the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, which covers her health care through her husband, Bill — into a crisis.

At one point in 2018,

for every hour that one of the union’s 16,000 members worked, 35 cents of his or her pay went to Alexion to cover the Pattersons’ prescriptions.

Employers and unions say the impact is already being felt.

Some small businesses, hit with just a single claim for a family like the Pattersons, have

considered ending their employee health coverage.

Others have drastically cut back coverage for drugs, and some employers are considering excluding coverage for expensive and novel treatments like gene therapy.

Companies cannot predict these costs.

“You are one hire, one diagnosis away from this happening to you,”

“It’s literally like being struck by lightning.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/h...97tion=topNews

BigPharma buys politicians who protect BigPharma, and DO NOTHING so the rapacious status quo is maintained.

Just another way Capitalism s America for profit

Get sick in America and spend the rest of your life in or near poverty. Capitalists don't GAF

What if employers start forcing job candidates to do ent all diseases and medical care before hiring?

[boutons_deux]

GOP House hypocrite is suddenly grateful for the health care he tried to take away from millions



He noted that former members of Congress don’t get health insurance for life and explained he plans to get a COBRA plan for his family — utilizing a 1985 law that allows people to pay to stay on their employers’ health plans at their own expense for up to 18 months after leaving a job.

“We pay the full boat for that so we can transition and with the condition of the baby, we have that complete coverage,” Duffy said.

“But, yeah, you are right. I had to look at that and make sure that with, open heart surgery, we had coverage to make sure that, you know, we could pay for that and we have got that worked out.

So, thank God, that’s not a consideration as we look to the birth.”

the original “reality TV star turned politician”

campaigned on repealing the Affordable Care Act.

And like many of his colleagues, he dressed his message up in a comforting trope, namely that

he would not vote to eliminate the ACA unless and until Republicans had a ready, comprehensive plan to replace it.

As it turns out,

Duffy did the exact opposite,

voting repeatedly not only to repeal the Affordable Care Act

(and its protections mandating affordable coverage for those with so-called “pre-existing conditions,” like his unborn daughter),

but actually, specifically opposing legislation that would have blocked the Trump administration’s guidelines allowing states to promote “junk” insurance policies which do not provide such protections.

And, predictably, Duffy did all this with no Republican “alternative” plan proposed, much less in place.

Sean Duffy voted to deny millions of Americans the same type of health care that he is now so thankful to God for receiving. There’s at least one word for that: hypocrisy.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/27/1881721/-Sean-Duffy-is-a-hypocrite-of-the-worst-kind?detail=emaildkre

[boutons_deux]

Medicare for All? ain't gonna happen. BigMedicine won't even allow a single modification to their wealth-extracting scam.

Providers wage war against fixing surprise medical billing, in a preview of what's to come

For a preview of the fight to come over improving anything in our healthcare system, look no further than the fight the providers—hospitals and some doctors’ groups—are waging against fixing one basic, big problem:

surprise billing

when people with insurance receive care from providers or at facilities that aren't in their insurance networks.

There's legislation in both the House and the Senate to fix the problem, and the efforts are bipartisan.

There had been hopes that the Senate would pass its version before the August recess, but

lobbyists managed to stop that from happening.

Now it looks like the American Hospital Association thinks it has killed current proposals.

a mystery group calling itself Doctor Patient Unity has spent $13 million in more than 20 states

just since July on an ad campaign fighting the legislation. That's along with the almost

$10.2 million the AHA has spent on lobbying so far in 2019,

and the

$11.5 million the American Medical Association has spent this year.

The Congressional Budget Office says that one of Senate's bills

could lower premiums by 1% across the board,

which is apparently a bridge too far for providers.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1881832

Medicare for All ain't never gonna happen

America is ed and un able

[boutons_deux]

[boutons_deux]

Thomas Jefferson would be so proud of his "masterpiece"

‘UVA has ruined us’:

Health system sues thousands of patients, seizing paychecks and putting liens on homes

Their money problems began when the University of Virginia Health System

pursued the couple with a lawsuit and a lien on their home to recoup $164,000 in charges for Waldron’s emergency surgery in 2017.

The family has lots of company:

Over six years ending in June 2018,

the health system and its doctors

sued former patients more than 36,000 times for over $106 million,
seizing wages and

bank accounts,

putting liens on property and

homes and forcing families into bankruptcy,

Unpaid medical bills are a leading cause of personal debt and bankruptcy,

with hospitals from Memphis to Baltimore criticized for their role in pushing families over the financial edge.

But UVA stands out for the scope of its collection efforts and how persistently it goes after payment,

pursuing poor as well as middle-class patients for almost all they’re worth,

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/health/uva-has-ruined-us-health-system-sues-thousands-of-patients-seizing-paychecks-and-putting-liens-on-homes/2019/09/09/5eb23306-c807-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

Where is Trash's promised health care plan, on Day One, better and cheaper for everyone, than Obamacare?

[boutons_deux]

The uninsured rate had been steadily declining for a decade. But now it’s rising again.


The number of uninsured Americans is increasing for the first time since Obamacare passed.

In 2018, the number of people in the United States without health insurance rose to 27.5 million, up from 25.6 million in 2017. The uninsured rate jumped from 7.9 percent in 2017 to 8.5 percent in 2018. It was the first year-to-year increase in uninsured rates since 2008 and 2009.

the Trump administration has taken numerous steps over the last few years to both hamstring the Obamacare marketplaces for private insurance and to roll back Medicaid enrollment.
The Census data revealed only marginal decreases in private insurance coverage, but Medicaid coverage dropped by 0.7 percentage points, a drop in enrollment of about 2 million people.


President Trump and congressional Republicans repealed the ACA’s individual mandate, which ended the requirement that people purchase coverage or pay a penalty. That could have led some people to voluntarily drop their insurance.

The administration has also sought to make skimpier “short-term insurance” plans more available and it has cut enrollment outreach for Obamacare enrollment.
For Medicaid, the administration has approved the first-ever work requirements, which was found in Arkansas to have led to some 20,000 people losing coverage.

The administration has also notably sought to crack down on immigrants’ enrolling in Medicaid, by changing federal “public charge” rules so they penalize migrants for utilizing public assistance.

The Census report found

persistently high uninsured rates among impoverished in states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA.

In those states, which have declined a generous federal match to cover their poorest citizens through the health care law,

more than one-third of people in poverty lack health insurance.

Racial disparities also persisted in insurance coverage in America:

5.4 percent of white non-Hispanic people were uninsured,

while 9.7 percent of blacks and

17.8 percent of Hispanics lacked coverage.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...eau-data-trump

The Repugs the poor and enrich the rich, consistent with policy-driven inequality and the oligarchy's EVERYBODY strategy.

[boutons_deux]

hole Texas has the most people without health insurance in the nation — again

For the second year in a row, the number of Texans without health insurance increased, and fewer people enrolled in Medicaid.

In 2018, 17.7% of Texas residents — about 5 million people — had no health coverage, up from 17.3% in 2017.

Both years,

Texas had almost double the number of uninsured people compared with the national average of 8.7% in 2017 and 8.9% in 2018.

It was one of only nine states to record an increase in the uninsured rate.

Texas is one of 14 states that have not expanded Medicaid,

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/09/10/texas-has-most-people-without-health-insurance-nation-again/