Hypocrite GOP Exempts Themselves From Trumpcare Plan To Charge The Sick More

[paralleluniverse]

Under ACA, Congress and their staff must buy plans on the ACA exchanges. This includes protections so that people with pre-existing conditions cannot be charged more.

The latest Trumpcare plan, contrary to Trump's lies, will remove this protection for pre-existing conditions, which will cause premiums to skyrocket for the sick (as much as 3500% for people with cancer). The hypocrite GOP have exempted themselves from the loss of this pre-existing conditions protection.

They have no problem with killing the sick, just not themselves, their families, and their staffers. The pure hypocrisy is so galling and brazen that the GOP are literally comic book villain evil.

Republicans exempt their own insurance from their latest health care proposal

Republican legislators want to keep popular Obamacare provisions for themselves and their staff.

House Republicans appear to have included a provision that exempts Members of Congress and their staff from their latest health care plan.

The new Republican amendment, introduced Tuesday night, would allow states to waive out of Obamacare’s ban on pre-existing conditions. This means that insurers could once again, under certain circumstances, charge sick people higher premiums than healthy people.

Republican legislators liked this policy well enough to offer it in a new amendment. They do not, however, seem to like it enough to have it apply to themselves and their staff. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) who authored this amendment confirmed this was the case: members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping these Obamacare regulations. Health law expert Tim Jost flagged me to this particular issue.

A bit of background is helpful here. Obamacare requires all members of Congress and their staff to purchase coverage on the individual market, just like Obamacare enrollees. The politics of that plank were simple enough, meant to demonstrate that if the coverage in this law were good enough for Americans than it should be good enough for their representations in Washington.

That’s been happening for the past four years now. Fast-forward to this new amendment, which would allow states to waive out of key Obamacare protections like the ban on pre-existing conditions or the requirement to cover things like maternity care and mental health services.

If Congressional aides lived in a state that decided to waive these protections, the aides who were sick could be vulnerable to higher premiums than the aides that are healthy. Their benefits package could get skimpier as Obamacare’s essential health benefits requirement may no longer apply either.

This apparently does not sound appealing because the Republican amendment includes the members of Congress and their staff as a protected group who cannot be affected by this amendment.

You can see it on the sixth page of the amendment, although it is admittedly hard to spot. The Obamacare section that requires legislators to buy on the individual market is section 1312(d)(3)(D). And if you look at the Republican amendment, and the list of who cannot be included in this waiver? It includes Section 1312(d)(3)(D).

Read more about the Republicans’ new amendment here.

Source: http://www.vox.com/2017/4/25/1542998...ahca-amendment

[Kiri]

.... The hypocrite GOP.....

Is there a non-hypocrite GOP?

[TZucchini]

But both sides are the same!!!!

[Forgettable]

Fucking lol. Why the US continues to pick from two garbage political parties is astounding.

[prwraith]

Fucking lol. Why the US continues to pick from two garbage political parties is astounding.

It's hard to compete when those two political parties have an astronomical amount of money to fund presidential races.

Also, my fellow americans are stupid. Voting for a 3rd or a 4th party isn't going to happen unless we somehow find ways to educate people. But that's never gonna happen lol

[Sesshou]

The latest Trumpcare plan, contrary to Trump's lies, will remove this protection for pre-existing conditions, which will cause premiums to skyrocket for the sick (as much as 3500% for people with cancer). The hypocrite GOP have exempted themselves from the loss of this pre-existing conditions protection.

Isn't that premium spike just for those who previously had no insurance? It would also be instead of the fairly substantial fine for not having insurance that Obamacare put into place.

The problem is that you need to get low risk healthy people into the pool. If you don't, the risk level of the pool becomes too high for a lot of people to afford the premiums. I think this is slightly preferable to the fines because you don't punish young, healthy individuals for not buying into something they don't need. Both are essentially shit though and we should be going towards single payer.

[Draco-Onis]

Isn't that premium spike just for those who previously had no insurance? It would also be instead of the fairly substantial fine for not having insurance that Obamacare put into place.

The problem is that you need to get low risk healthy people into the pool. If you don't, the risk level of the pool becomes too high for a lot of people to afford the premiums. I think this is slightly preferable to the fines because you don't punish young, healthy individuals for not buying into something they don't need. Both are essentially shit though and we should be going towards single payer.

But there is a fine when you drop insurance and get it back up, it's just the fine is now going to private insurance instead of the government. The high risk pool idea is just laughable, oh well let's see how loyal those Trump supporters are when they have no healthcare.

[Exeris]

Voting 3rd party is stupid without changing how the system works. Educating people is nice, but it's not going to fix most of this if you just kick back and wait for one of the parties to hand you your political revolution on a platter. The fundamental issue is that people aren't interested in doing anything more than complaining.

I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the voters think that there isn't anything they can do, at least inside the law. And I'm not pretending that I know.

Something else weird I have notice on some of my family and friends is that they keep voting for the same party they've always voted for even if that party has changed a lot over time and is now far down on the list of political parties that fit their views.

I don't usually talk about politics with people I like because it often gets heated, but I got an answer from one of my family members once after she complained(and does this often) about something the party she voted had pushed. I asked why do you keep voting for them, solidarity was the answer.

[Revik]

So business as usual then? The more things change the more they stay the same.

[Kujako]

Well yeah... it's like when they insisted on a 50% reduction in all Government departments, except their salaries. Even Obama took the pay cut, Congress refused.

[some guy]

Totally surprised at this.

[Tinykong]

Well yeah... it's like when they insisted on a 50% reduction in all Government departments, except their salaries. Even Obama took the pay cut, Congress refused.

$174k base salary is really hard to live on, man.

[Video Games]

I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the voters think that there isn't anything they can do, at least inside the law. And I'm not pretending that I know.

Something else weird I have notice on some of my family and friends is that they keep voting for the same party they've always voted for even if that party has changed a lot over time and is now far down on the list of political parties that fit their views.

I don't usually talk about politics with people I like because it often gets heated, but I got an answer from one of my family members once after she complained(and does this often) about something the party she voted had pushed. I asked why do you keep voting for them, solidarity was the answer.

Peraona 5 has taught me well on why people don't think for themselves. It's just easier that way.

[Sesshou]

But there is a fine when you drop insurance and get it back up, it's just the fine is now going to private insurance instead of the government. The high risk pool idea is just laughable, oh well let's see how loyal those Trump supporters are when they have no healthcare.

Only if you waited until you're actually sick to get it where as the fine you will always end up paying unless you pay for insurance. This potentially shifts more burden on those who try to cheat the system by only getting insurance when they're already sick, stays neutral for those who intend to maintain constant coverage because this avoids both the premium spike and the fine, and reduces the burden on younger, healthy people by giving them the ability to opt out of costly insurance plans they won't see any gain from. And as you said, that first group already are paying the fine with Obamacare so the concept of making them pay for trying to game the system is already in place.

[ArguesWithStrangers]

News at eight, politicians behave as they always have since the beginning of time.

[The Penguin]

Old Politics = New Politics

Welcome to World of Class Warcraft

1775-2017

Patch: 45.0

[Stormspark]

I honestly hope they pass it. Because it's been shown that in this country nobody cares about anything that doesn't affect them personally.

[WintersLegion]

I honestly hope they pass it. Because it's been shown that in this country nobody cares about anything that doesn't affect them personally.

Where has that been shown? I see people all the time get upset about things that don't affect them personally like with the bathroom debate.

[Stormspark]

Where has that been shown? I see people all the time get upset about things that don't affect them personally like with the bathroom debate.

I mean in general. The last election shows that things would have to get a LOT worse before they can get better. The only way we'll ever get single payer health care in the US is if something like this is passed and a lot of people start dying. It will have to get amazingly, incredibly bad before a large enough number of people will say "enough" and get the support for single payer.

[Glnger]

I mean in general. The last election shows that things would have to get a LOT worse before they can get better. The only way we'll ever get single payer health care in the US is if something like this is passed and a lot of people start dying. It will have to get amazingly, incredibly bad before a large enough number of people will say "enough" and get the support for single payer.

the majority of Americans DO support single payer, the politicians that are elected to represent their interests and don't are the problem.