How Odious Is the House-Passed American Health Care Act?

[Jtbrig7390]

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-free...t-hurts-people

How Odious Is the House-Passed American Health Care Act? Let Us Count the Ways It Hurts People With Disabilities.

MAY 8, 2017 | 4:15 PM

Last week, 217 members of the House of Representatives voted to decimate our country’s safety net for people with disabilities. And many of them gleefully toasted its passage on the White House lawn with President Trump. Yet, on every front, the American Health Care Act (AHCA) threatens the civil rights, health, employment, freedom, and the very lives of millions of people with disabilities in every state across our country.

Now that the debate moves to the Senate, with so much at stake if this cruel bill passes into law, it’s worth taking a moment to really understand the ways the Obamacare repeal bill harms people with disabilities. There’s nothing to cheer or grin about here.

Taking an Ax to Medicaid: According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the AHCA slashes $839 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years. Medicaid currently works as a partnership between the states and the federal government, with each dollar from the state matched by an equal or greater federal investment. Federal dollars have allowed states to expand services to people with disabilities and address the needs of people with disabilities on waiting lists. Through “per capita caps,” the AHCA dramatically slashes future federal funding for Medicaid, limiting the ability of states to respond to the needs of their residents.

Taking Our Lives and Our Freedom: For people with disabilities, Medicaid is more than just health insurance — it’s the main financing source for services like personal care attendants to help people get dressed, eat, and use the bathroom. These supports keep people with disabilities out of nursing homes and institutions. By cutting Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 10 years, the AHCA threatens to slash the supports that keep people with disabilities free from institutional care and send them back into nursing homes. Supporters of this horrible bill claim to care about our freedoms, yet they completely ignore that Medicaid provides the means for people with disabilities to leave institutions and exercise their constitutional right to liberty.

Ending the Medicaid Expansion: The AHCA would end Medicaid expansion in 2020, forcing states to kick millions of people off of coverage and out of care. Medicaid expansion has allowed millions of individuals with disabilities, especially those with mental health needs or substance abuse problems, to access care. Medicaid expansion has also allowed many more people with disabilities to enter the workforce. The AHCA reverses this progress.

Pre-Existing Condition Discrimination Is Back: Thanks to last-minute changes in the bill, states can waive Obamacare’s protections against pre-existing condition discrimination. This means that your state could allow insurance companies to charge you more money if you have a pre-existing condition like autism, depression, bipolar disease, etc. People with disabilities would certainly lose health insurance coverage because it would no longer be affordable.

High Risk Pools Are Risky and Don’t Work: The awful AHCA includes funds for “high risk pools” to purportedly cover people with pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately, “high risk pools” have been tried repeatedly and have repeatedly failed for three main reasons: They impose premiums so high that most people cannot purchase the coverage. They cover only about half of the health care needed by the individual, and they impose life-threatening waiting periods. This latest effort underfunds risk pools by $200 billion — and it’ll be people with disabilities and others with chronic health needs left holding the bag.

They’re Called “Essential” For a Reason: Under the Affordable Care Act, health insurance must cover “essential health benefits,” including doctors, hospital care, prescription drugs, pregnancy and childbirth, drug treatment, and mental health services. AHCA allows states to waive these requirements, enabling insurers to sell cut-rate plans that won’t pay for any real care when you need them.

Annual and Lifetime Caps Are Back: The AHCA permits the resumption of annual and lifetime caps on coverage in states that waive essential health benefits and in large employer-provided plans, affecting more than 100 million Americans. This means that insurers can set limits on the total amount of benefits that a plan would cover in a year or in a person’s lifetime. Prior to the ACA, these caps were devastating to people with disabilities and their families. For example, a child with cystic fibrosis would be at significant risk of hitting a lifetime limit of $1 million before reaching adulthood. People with disabilities were often forced to delay vital medical procedures or prescription drugs due to annual limits on the amount of money the insurance company would pay. These are the days that AHCA threatens to return us to.
OPPOSE THE ACA REPEAL

MAKE THE CALL People with disabilities deserve better than this. Everyone does. And we will continue to fight to ensure that the American Health Care Act never becomes law. We have people power on our side and, despite our loss yesterday, our voices will not be silenced.

We must make clear to every member of the Senate that the monstrosity that came out of the House of Representatives is unacceptable. For millions of Americans with disabilities, the stakes are too high to do anything less.

[Underverse]

I don't expect it to pass the senate.

[Jtbrig7390]

I don't expect it to pass the senate.

Me nether but this is still a good read IMO.

[I Push Buttons]

The GOP bill is basically the politically correct way to tell disabled people to fuck off and die.

There are only two options for dealing with people with disabilities/pre-existing conditions in our current for-profit, extremely inflated, etc., healthcare market.

The first option is their cost of care is subsidized by everyone else. Either through everyone else paying higher insurance premiums so that insurance companies can also cover high risk people. Or by everyone else paying higher taxes so the government can cover high risk people outside of insurance companies. If they are to be covered in any way, that cost is subsidized by others.

OR

Tell them to fuck off and die.

There is no in-between, in our current system. Either they get the care or they don't... And if they get it, it is too expensive for them to pay for it themselves, so everyone has to pay for it.

[Jtbrig7390]

The GOP bill is basically the politically correct way to tell disabled people to fuck off and die.

There are only two options for dealing with people with disabilities/pre-existing conditions in our current for-profit, extremely inflated, etc., healthcare market.

The first option is their cost of care is subsidized by everyone else. Either through everyone else paying higher insurance premiums so that insurance companies can also cover high risk people. Or by everyone else paying higher taxes so the government can cover high risk people outside of insurance companies. If they are to be covered in any way, that cost is subsidized by others.

OR

Tell them to fuck off and die.

There is no in-between, in our current system. Either they get the care or they don't... And if they get it, it is too expensive for them to pay for it themselves, so everyone has to pay for it.

If there is something tax's should pay for its those who need help because of there disability/Pre-existing conditions.

[Slybak]

I don't expect it to pass the senate.

It can't in its present form without scrapping the filibuster rules.

In order to pass any law in the Senate with a bare majority of votes (51), the underlying bill has to be drafted under budget reconciliation rules. Under such rules, a law is limited in its scope; it can only affect outlays and revenues (a.k.a. spending and taxes), it has to be at least deficit neutral over a 10 year duration, it can't touch Social Security, etc.

You can't repeal regulations that don't have a budgetary impact through reconciliation, and there's a lot in the AHCA that does that. Ending the Essential Health Benefits, removing the rule against lifetime/annual benefit caps, etc. Those rules were put in place with 60 Senate votes, and they'll need 60 Senate votes to remove.

[Berengil]

The GOP bill is basically the politically correct way to tell disabled people to fuck off and die.

Indeed. It would be political suicide for the GOP senators to pass as is.

So, either a bunch of GOP senators commit political suicide (a positive development) or they realize what it would do to them and instead improve it significantly (a positive development).

[Volardelis]

I just find it funny that Paul Ryan spent a good portion of the Obamacare discussions saying it was rushed and terrible.

Comes to the 2nd attempt of the AHCA. It is rushed through the house so fast that it beat Usain bolts 100m record before he even started running.

Then he had to the nerve to come out and say it wasn't rushed.

- - - Updated - - -

But I do find it funny that there are some trump supporters who generally believe that the AHCA is better than the ACA because it is referred to as Trumpcare. And anything with Trump in it has to be good. Just like Trump steaks and Trump University.

[stabetha]

It's literally worst then the holocaust

[Sky High]

I just find it funny that Paul Ryan spent a good portion of the Obamacare discussions saying it was rushed and terrible.

Comes to the 2nd attempt of the AHCA. It is rushed through the house so fast that it beat Usain bolts 100m record before he even started running.

Then he had to the nerve to come out and say it wasn't rushed.

- - - Updated - - -

But I do find it funny that there are some trump supporters who generally believe that the AHCA is better than the ACA because it is referred to as Trumpcare. And anything with Trump in it has to be good. Just like Trump steaks and Trump University.

well to be fair to them I imagine a lot of them hated Obamacare not because Obama is attached to it (not gonna deny that's probably the main reason for most) but that deeeern socialism! /looks with abject disdain at the freedom caucus

[Volardelis]

well to be fair to them I imagine a lot of them hated Obamacare not because Obama is attached to it (not gonna deny that's probably the main reason for most) but that deeeern socialism! /looks with abject disdain at the freedom caucus

I just find it funny that they don't realize the best way to minimize the risk of a communist take over is to bring in socialist policies. If I bring up a certain individual who actually knew that, I would be breaking one of the laws of the internet.

But what can you do when America was exposed to close to 50 years of propaganda saying anything remotely socialist is 100% evil and the devils work. No wonder Alex jones believed that Obama was the anti-Christ.

[I Push Buttons]

Or option C. They pass the biill, lie about everything and blame the liberals for "something". That seems to be a winning strat so far.

Indeed.

Pass it, wait two years for it to be fully implemented. Then when the shit hits the fan. "This is all because of Obamacare, the damage was already done, our law prevented it from being much worse!"

[Calfredd]

I just find it funny that they don't realize the best way to minimize the risk of a communist take over is to bring in socialist policies. If I bring up a certain individual who actually knew that, I would be breaking one of the laws of the internet.

But what can you do when America was exposed to close to 50 years of propaganda saying anything remotely socialist is 100% evil and the devils work. No wonder Alex jones believed that Obama was the anti-Christ.

I'm tempted to link Chuck Norris' commercial where he forsaw 1,000 years of darkness should Obama win. I'll do it anyway.

[Santti]

I'm tempted to link Chuck Norris' commercial where he forsaw 1,000 years of darkness should Obama win. I'll do it anyway.

Damn. Never knew he's a crazy person.

[Noxx79]

Hey well off people using posting in this thread.

For every story there is of a person who is denied insurance because of these old changes, there is a story or at least 5 people who owned insurance but was still fucked under obamacare.

This issue is not as cut and dry as you are making it out to seem. Remember; repealing obamacare is one of the things Trump ran on. And it was successful for a reason.

What was that reason? Was it because the house rushed a bill that only had approval in the 30% range? Was it because the reps had no idea what they were voting for?

The issue is not as cut and dry as you make it.

Obamacare bad isn't a reason, especially since it now has a more than 50% approval rating.

Could it be that the problems are not due to Obamacare, but due to republicans trying to sabatoge it at every level? Is it because they valued party over the lives of their constituents? Is it because the republicans have fallen hard for fake news regarding Obamacare?

You tell me.

[I Push Buttons]

Hey well off people using posting in this thread.

For every story there is of a person who is denied insurance because of these old changes, there is a story or at least 5 people who owned insurance but was still fucked under obamacare.

This issue is not as cut and dry as you are making it out to seem. Remember; repealing obamacare is one of the things Trump ran on. And it was successful for a reason.

You mean five idiots who, before the ACA, were paying for a literally useless plan that had such a high deductible and so many exclusions that it essentially covered/paid for nothing... Or just didn't buy insurance because "I am healthy I don't need insurance!", passing the cost onto other people when they got sick/had accidents and went to an ER for free.

Who now, after the ACA, have actual health insurance that, go figure, costs a little bit more than having a plan that was useless or not having anything (by choice).

[Benggaul]

Hey well off people using posting in this thread.

For every story there is of a person who is denied insurance because of these old changes, there is a story or at least 5 people who owned insurance but was still fucked under obamacare.

This issue is not as cut and dry as you are making it out to seem. Remember; repealing obamacare is one of the things Trump ran on. And it was successful for a reason.

I'd like to see those stats, please. Thank you.

[Celista]

The GOP bill is basically the politically correct way to tell disabled people to fuck off and die.

There are only two options for dealing with people with disabilities/pre-existing conditions in our current for-profit, extremely inflated, etc., healthcare market.

The first option is their cost of care is subsidized by everyone else. Either through everyone else paying higher insurance premiums so that insurance companies can also cover high risk people. Or by everyone else paying higher taxes so the government can cover high risk people outside of insurance companies. If they are to be covered in any way, that cost is subsidized by others.

OR

Tell them to fuck off and die.

There is no in-between, in our current system. Either they get the care or they don't... And if they get it, it is too expensive for them to pay for it themselves, so everyone has to pay for it.

Honestly we all pay for it either way. Because hospitals are legally required to give care to individuals in life-threatening emergencies, regardless of ability to pay. When an individual can't afford their hospital bill (because hospital bills for life-threatening emergencies are often in the six or even seven-figure range), the individual gets sued by the hospital, and the debt eventually discharged via bankruptcy. Because hospitals get little to nothing when debt is discharged, they respond by increasing the cost of services for everyone else. And the cost of premiums for everyone with insurance goes up.

TL,DR: your premiums are fucked either way, might as well give the poor/disabled health care.

[I Push Buttons]

Honestly we all pay for it either way. Because hospitals are legally required to give care to individuals in life-threatening emergencies, regardless of ability to pay. When an individual can't afford their hospital bill (because hospital bills for life-threatening emergencies are often in the six or even seven-figure range), the individual gets sued by the hospital, and the debt eventually discharged via bankruptcy. Because hospitals get little to nothing when debt is discharged, they respond by increasing the cost of services for everyone else. And the cost of premiums for everyone with insurance goes up.

TL,DR: your premiums are fucked either way, might as well give the poor/disabled health care.

Oh I know, that was the entire point of the individual mandate.

[Wyrt]

Anything that is not moving toward universal health coverage is just pants on head retarded. We've seen the system work time and time again across many different countries. We have many examples of how to do it.

I don't understand why this topic is even up for debate anymore. Other countries do healthcare better and they do it cheaper. So why are we riding the short bus when we don't have to?