GOP to Rip Insurance from 23M, Ram Through Secret Trumpcare Bill By End of June

[Anevers]

Also the people who want access to them should have to pay into the programs in order to get access to them. L

They do, it's called taxes.

[Breccia]

That's because they don't really want to improve the ACA, because doing that would cost money.

And don't forget: the promise was
A) Better coverage
B) For more people
C) For less money.

This plan does literally none of that.
A) States will be allowed to have insurance plans which don't meet the ACA standards, which is, of course, worse coverage.
B) Millions will be kicked off insurance and Medicaid.
C) Premiums are expected to rise.

And Trump more recently said he wanted a plan with "heart". Then he backed this plan.

[cubby]

Its ok, in 4-8 years when the Dems get in again they can ram another bill through.
Not sure the game has changed in the last.....30+ years

What's more likely, if this abortion of legislation is actually passed, is that the Dems will keep it hog tied in the courts until better minds can get back in control and stop ass-raping regular citizens.

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It's hard you know.

How do you decide the right number of people to kill to give yourselves and the rest of the elite tax cuts?

That's a damn tough metric to resolve. Hopefully their sacrifice will find a solution that kills just the right number so their millionaire backers can get some more cash for their third vacation home.

[Jimmy Woods]

Chris Hayes of MSNBC made a great point about the Health Care bill on twitter.

Republicans were waiting for this for 7 years. It's finally announced and every single Fox News show leads with Nancy Pelosi. It's so good Fox News won't even cover it. SO MUCH WINNING. This is why the Democrats lose. Republicans are better at lying to and conning stupid people and unfortunately most Americans (>50%) are stupid.

[Blur4stuff]

Republicans keep making the argument that we should be using square wheels. Never mind those other countries with round ones. Can't possibly work.

[paralleluniverse]

The Trumpcare death bill is estimated to kill an additional 18,100 to 27,700 people in 2026.

And in total, over the years up to 2026, it will kill a similar amount of people as the House version.


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Economist Paul Krugman on Trumpcare:

Pure Class Warfare, With Extra Contempt

The Senate version of Trumpcare – the Better Care Reconciliation Act – is out. The substance is terrible: tens of millions of people will experience financial distress if this passes, and tens if not hundreds of thousands will die premature deaths, all for the sake of tax cuts for a handful of wealthy people. What’s even more amazing is that Republicans are making almost no effort to justify this massive upward redistribution of income. They’re doing it because they can, because they believe that the tribalism of their voters is strong enough that they will continue to support politicians who are ruining their lives.

In this sense – and in only this sense – what we’re seeing now is a departure from previous Republican practice.

In the past, laws that would take from the poor and working class while giving to the rich came with excuses. Tax cuts, their sponsors declared, would unleash market dynamism and make everyone more prosperous. Deregulation would increase efficiency and lower prices. It was all voodoo; the promises never came true. But at least there was some pretense of working for the common good.

Now we have none of this. This bill does nothing to reduce health care costs. It does nothing to improve the functioning of health insurance markets – in fact, it will send them into death spirals by reducing subsidies and eliminating the individual mandate. There is nothing at all in the bill that will make health care more affordable for those currently having trouble paying for it. And it will gradually squeeze Medicaid, eventually destroying any possibility of insurance for millions.

Who benefits? It’s all about the tax cuts, almost half of which will go to people with incomes over $1 million, the great bulk to people with incomes over 200K.

So, is this bill good for you? Yes, if you meet the following criteria:

1.Your income is more than $200,000 a year
2.You have a job that comes with good health insurance
3.You can’t imagine any circumstances under which you lose that job or income
4.You don’t have any family members or friends who don’t meet those criteria
5.You have zero empathy for anyone else

The set of people who can check all these boxes is not a winning political coalition. But Republican leaders believe that their voters are tribal enough, sufficiently walled off from information, that they’ll ignore the attack on their lives and keep voting R – indeed, that as they lose health care, get hit with crushing out-of-pocket bills, see their friends and neighbors face ruin, they’ll blame it on Democrats.

I wish I were sure that this belief was false.

[Breccia]

There is no realistic way to defend TrumpCare 1.0 2.0 or 3.0 as anything other than tax cuts for the rich, in exchange for reduced health care for the poor. The GOP tried to craft something fillibuster-proof, and to do so, they have to leave the deficit and debt alone. But, those tax cuts. So, they have to lower payments -- and the only way that works, is if they reduce federal government benefits, in order to keep things at a net even or gain.

The Senate bill objectively does that.

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The Trumpcare death bill

But paralleluniverse! Surely you're not suggesting that TrumpCare will kill more people per year than auto accidents or firearms?

Also, how do you feel about leading questions?

[Xeones]

Anyone else like this, the title of the bill is Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017

And yet it has the effect of making care worse and less accessible in all regards.

[haxartus]

You're running in circles. Think about it.

You spent 8 years passing a healthcare system, then you are going to spend 4-8 years repealing it, and then the next 8 years will likely be about trying to return it again. Until the next government, which is going to repeal it again.

The net result is exactly 0. That is decades of effort wasted. Think about it again.

Do you know who is not running in circles ? Everyone else. China has a 7% growth. Do you know how much is 7% growth ? That is 10 years doubling time. That means that it takes 10 years for their entire economy to double in size. The same amount of time it takes you to pass a healthcare reform.

[Gestopft]

You're running in circles. Think about it.

You spent 8 years passing a healthcare system, then you are going to spend 4-8 years repealing it, and then the next 8 years will likely be about trying to return it again. Until the next government, which is going to repeal it again.

The net result is exactly 0. That is decades of effort wasted. Think about it again.

Do you know who is not running in circles ? Everyone else. China has a 7% growth. Do you know how much is 7% growth ? That is 10 years doubling time. That means that it takes 10 years for their entire economy to double in size. The same amount of time it takes you to pass a healthcare reform.

Unfortunately we'll only be able to have a productive healthcare conversation when the free market worshippers on the right that don't apparently understand markets realize that healthcare is different, and we need to treat it as such.

[Glorious Leader]

Unfortunately we'll only be able to have a productive healthcare conversation when the free market worshippers on the right that don't apparently understand markets realize that healthcare is different, and we need to treat it as such.

That conversation will likely never happen. If you can admit that healthcare is not like any other market then you open up the discussion for a whole can of other things.

[cubby]

And the tide, though small, continues to turn further against the GOP's roughshod machine.

That's five GOP senators that are now refusing to vote for it.

[Glorious Leader]

And the tide, though small, continues to turn further against the GOP's roughshod machine.

Its refreshing to see that some of them are not utterly craven disgusting creeps. I may find disagreement but at least theyll stick to some principle.

It could also be they recognize how unpopular this bill is and which way the political wind is blowing. Hard to say i guess.

[Edge-]

Its refreshing to see that some of them are not utterly craven disgusting creeps. I may find disagreement but at least theyll stick to some principle.

Give a few days, we'll see how many stick to their initial reactions. It wouldn't be the first time Republicans have talked the talk and then fallen back into line, goose stepping with the rest of them.

[Glorious Leader]

Give a few days, we'll see how many stick to their initial reactions. It wouldn't be the first time Republicans have talked the talk and then fallen back into line, goose stepping with the rest of them.

True. Mcconnel is no stranger to greasing the wheel or grabbing by the balls as necessary. It could also be the case where theyre still be cravem they just recognize this bill is a death sentence for their political careers.

[Zan15]

And the tide, though small, continues to turn further against the GOP's roughshod machine.

That's five GOP senators that are now refusing to vote for it.

but don't get too excited, these people actually want a WORSE plan that hurts MORE people.
they are not voting against it to make it better....

that is even scarier then voting for it

[cubby]

but don't get too excited, these people actually want a WORSE plan that hurts MORE people.
they are not voting against it to make it better....

that is even scarier then voting for it

This guy isn't one of those, at least from his most recent statements. But I hear what you're saying.

[Glorious Leader]

but don't get too excited, these people actually want a WORSE plan that hurts MORE people.
they are not voting against it to make it better....

that is even scarier then voting for it

I dont like but okay thats fine. Let them be dead set on stupid. Their intrangicence blocks the passage of regressive legislation. Thats a win. Hey stupid red necks keep being stupid 4 years will be up in no time.

[paralleluniverse]

Deductibles will go up from an average of $250 to $6000 for people at $150 of the poverty line.

ACA's cap on deductibles can be waived under Trumpcare.

Also, a statement from Obama:

Our politics are divided. They have been for a long time. And while I know that division makes it difficult to listen to Americans with whom we disagree, that’s what we need to do today.

I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party. Still, I hope that our Senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.

We didn’t fight for the Affordable Care Act for more than a year in the public square for any personal or political gain – we fought for it because we knew it would save lives, prevent financial misery, and ultimately set this country we love on a better, healthier course.

Nor did we fight for it alone. Thousands upon thousands of Americans, including Republicans, threw themselves into that collective effort, not for political reasons, but for intensely personal ones – a sick child, a parent lost to cancer, the memory of medical bills that threatened to derail their dreams.

And you made a difference. For the first time, more than ninety percent of Americans know the security of health insurance. Health care costs, while still rising, have been rising at the slowest pace in fifty years. Women can’t be charged more for their insurance, young adults can stay on their parents’ plan until they turn 26, contraceptive care and preventive care are now free. Paying more, or being denied insurance altogether due to a preexisting condition – we made that a thing of the past.

We did these things together. So many of you made that change possible.

At the same time, I was careful to say again and again that while the Affordable Care Act represented a significant step forward for America, it was not perfect, nor could it be the end of our efforts – and that if Republicans could put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we made to our health care system, that covers as many people at less cost, I would gladly and publicly support it.

That remains true. So I still hope that there are enough Republicans in Congress who remember that public service is not about sport or notching a political win, that there’s a reason we all chose to serve in the first place, and that hopefully, it’s to make people’s lives better, not worse.

But right now, after eight years, the legislation rushed through the House and the Senate without public hearings or debate would do the opposite. It would raise costs, reduce coverage, roll back protections, and ruin Medicaid as we know it. That’s not my opinion, but rather the conclusion of all objective analyses, from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which found that 23 million Americans would lose insurance, to America’s doctors, nurses, and hospitals on the front lines of our health care system.

The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill. It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else. Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.

Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family – this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.

I hope our Senators ask themselves – what will happen to the Americans grappling with opioid addiction who suddenly lose their coverage? What will happen to pregnant mothers, children with disabilities, poor adults and seniors who need long-term care once they can no longer count on Medicaid? What will happen if you have a medical emergency when insurance companies are once again allowed to exclude the benefits you need, send you unlimited bills, or set unaffordable deductibles? What impossible choices will working parents be forced to make if their child’s cancer treatment costs them more than their life savings?

To put the American people through that pain – while giving billionaires and corporations a massive tax cut in return – that’s tough to fathom. But it’s what’s at stake right now. So it remains my fervent hope that we step back and try to deliver on what the American people need.

That might take some time and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. But I believe that’s what people want to see. I believe it would demonstrate the kind of leadership that appeals to Americans across party lines. And I believe that it’s possible – if you are willing to make a difference again. If you’re willing to call your members of Congress. If you are willing to visit their offices. If you are willing to speak out, let them and the country know, in very real terms, what this means for you and your family.

After all, this debate has always been about something bigger than politics. It’s about the character of our country – who we are, and who we aspire to be. And that’s always worth fighting for.

[Breccia]

ACA's cap on deductibles can be waived under Trumpcare.

Well that sounds like a return of annual and/or lifetime limits of coverage. Which cause medical bankruptcies.

So the cost of premiums will go up, and your plan might still leave you bankrupt.

The CBO report is due Monday, right?