The US Healthcare Mass Debate

[Tero]

Senate likely to miss its Obamacare repeal deadline
Politico - ‎2 hours ago‎
Senate Republicans are getting dangerously close to missing their deadline to hold a Senate health care vote by month's end, potentially derailing fulfillment of their 7-year-old campaign promise to repeal Obamacare.

[Scot Dutchy]

The orange scrotum will not like that.

[Tero]

This is actually a tough nut on the senators. They can pass a repeal now, but their entire re-election will be spent on fixes to this at their home states. Not sure how many senators are up in 2018, but those are the ones wanting to postpone the whole thing past Nov 2018. Congressmen are ALL stuck with this in 2018.

[Brian Peacock]

They should just hold true to their convictions and repeal that evil bill. It's what they were voted in to do.

[Tero]

We asked 8 Senate Republicans to explain what their health bill is trying to do
It's going to do stuff, because OBAMACARE IS SPIRALLING OUT OF CONTROL!
Sometimes a senator could identify a desired outcome, like “lowering premiums” or “stabilizing marketplaces.” But they rarely could explain the mechanism through which they planned on achieving that outcome.

How will Republicans lower premiums? “It’s working together and coming up with a bill that does do that,” Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas said. What tool will bring stability to Obamacare’s volatile exchanges? “By bringing certainty to the insurance market,” Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said. What new policy will lead tax cuts to lower premiums? “It’s teetering because the exchanges are failing,” Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi explained.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... ain-please

[Tero]

Rand Paul afraid someone will get healthcare:
Sen. Rand Paul criticized the key planks of the Senate Republican’s bill, denouncing the “new entitlements” that the bill creates. Paul argues that the bill’s tax credits help Americans purchase health insurance and a “stabilization fund” helps lower premiums amounts to new entitlements.

I already wrote this up weeks ago:
http://karireport.blogspot.com/2017/04/ ... erica.html

[Tero]

There were 80 days of Senate hearings on Obamacare. Republicans could have spoken in these prior to voting on the unknown content.

Same thing is happening now without the 80 days. A total 20 hours but only in committees.

[Tero]

Neither house bill of Senate bill clear on how pre-existing conditions handled. Where do people with ANY condition sign up?

It will include more funding to handle preexisting conditions

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) told reporters Thursday that the House bill “grossly underfunds” high pools to help people with preexisting conditions, and that it would need at least $15 billion in its first year to work.

The AHCA dedicated $15 billion over nine years for states to create their pools, on top of a last-minute amendment that would give $8 billion over five years to a fund to help with premiums and cost sharing for people with preexisting conditions. That works out to about $3.3 billion per year.

There’s also a $100 billion pool of money in the House bill to help states stabilize their insurance markets, which can be used to help people with preexisting conditions as well as other purposes, but senators may want a dedicated source of funding specifically for the pools.

“We need to focus on getting people with preexisting conditions (covered) while also lowering premiums,” Sen. Barrasso told reporters Thursday.

“One of the ways you can do that is with something like the Maine high risk pool, that Susan Collins has been a strong advocate for. The issue in our discussion is you have to make sure there’s enough money in it… There’s some concern that the house bill, which is in the right direction, doesn’t adequately fund the high risk pool the level you would need it to be at to bring down the premium levels because 5 percent of the patients is about 55 percent of the spending.”

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/33 ... enate-bill

[rainbow]

Something terrific is being boiled up in a cauldron in the bowels of the Senate.

[Brian Peacock]

"Eveyone's gonna be taken care of... much better than they're being taken care of now..."

Do you like the sound of an ex-mafia stooge saying he's going to 'take care' of you?

[Scot Dutchy]

"I am going to give to you the biggest present of life".

[Tero]

Republican plan leads to less healthcare provided to patients. Thus fewer jobs:
"It initially raises the federal deficit when taxes are repealed, leading to 864,000 more jobs in 2018. In later years, reductions in support for health insurance cause negative economic effects. By 2026, 924,000 jobs would be lost, gross state products would be $93 billion lower, and business output would be $148 billion less. About three-quarters of jobs lost (725,000) would be in the health care sector."
http://www.businessinsider.com/study-ah ... red-2017-6

[Brian Peacock]

"If it's not hurting it's not working."

[Tero]

Democrats face intense pressure from liberal groups to shut down the Senate floor and block committees from meeting to slow down the GOP. Indivisible, a progressive advocacy group, urged its members to ask Democratic senators to “resist through procedure.”

“[Senate Democrats] also need to draw more attention by accepting and introducing thousands of amendments during vote-a-rama. Demand it,” Indivisible said on Twitter.

The vote-a-rama is an hours-long session in which any member can demand a vote on an amendment. Under Senate rules, Republicans have to hold the marathon session before they can take a final vote on an ObamaCare repeal bill.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced on Monday that it had launched a new ad against Sens. Dean Heller (Nev.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) — the two most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection in an otherwise favorable year for the party — as well as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

“Republicans can try and ram through their health care bill in secret, but voters will know exactly who to blame when their costs spike and their coverage is cut,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Spokesman David Bergstein.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3384 ... acare-bill

[Tero]

Jesus does not want you to have healthcare, because ABORTION

The RSC specifically warned that the bill would lose support in the House if it did not keep four provisions, including the phasing out of extra federal funding for Medicaid in 2020. They also warned McConnell against preserving ObamaCare’s tax increases, removing language defunding Planned Parenthood or barring refundable tax credits from being used to “federally fund abortions.”

In a bid to keep moderate Republicans on board, McConnell has proposed phasing out enhanced federal funding for Medicaid expansion in 2023.